How We Got Here
by Curlscat
Summary: We know what happened after they got to Ferryport Landing and we know what they're like now. But what happened to them for the year and half after their parent's disappearance? This is the story of Sabrina's and Daphne's journey to become the people they are today, from the night their parents disappeared 'til they got on the train to Ferryport Landing.
1. The First Night

**AN: Part of my early attempt to do all the challenge. This one is for a challenge with no name that called for a non-puckabrina story. I had this idea already, and I wanted to claim it before someone else did, it's such and amazing idea that I'm surprised nobody else has done it yet!  
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**Disclaimer: Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, Ms. Smirt, all other Grimms, and many of the foster parents belong to Michael Buckley.  
**

**Claimer: Several of the orphans and foster parents are my original characters, and thus belong to me.**

* * *

On the last day of fourth grade, Sabrina Grimm's life changed forever.

She'd run home from school that day, excited to show her grades to her parents, only to find them gone. It hadn't been that big a deal at first. It was a little weird that they hadn't been home, since they'd promised to take her out for dinner if she had a good report card, but she decided that her mom had probably gone off to meet with one of her activist groups, and that her dad was probably buying the groceries or something. So she ate the last of the pretzels and waited for them to get home, munching contentedly on her snack.

It was when she got that phone call that she started getting worried. There was no _way_ they'd forgotten to pick Daphne up. Daphne was their baby, and because she was so sweet, she was a _spoiled_ baby. They never made her wait to get picked up, and they definitely wouldn't ever forget her. Sabrina bit her lip nervously, but she handled the call expertly, telling the teacher that her parents were out, and she would come pick Daphne up right away.

Daphne was, unusually, not happy when Sabrina picked her up. "I want Mommy!" she whined.

"Well, Mom's not here, so you'll have to settle for me," Sabrina muttered.

They walked silently along the sidewalks, emptier than usual now- it was _very_ late for Daphne to be picked up, and the clouds were thick and dark overhead, looming with a storm to come.

"I'm hungry," Daphne pouted.

"Then I'll cook something," Sabrina said, not pointing out that Daphne was _always_ hungry. "What do you want?"

"Ice cream?" Daphne asked, running through the revolving door.

"_After_ dinner," Sabrina said, following her more slowly. "Pick something healthy."

"But all the stuff I want needs to be cooked, and Daddy doesn't let you use the stove," Daphne pointed out, skipping her way across the lobby, her bad mood gone.

"Dad doesn't let anyone do anything," Sabrina said, punching their floor into the elevator. "Mom lets me. So what do you want?"

"What do we have?" Daphne asked, after thinking for a minute.

The elevator dinged three floors between her answers, and they got out and walked to their apartment.

Sabrina rolled her eyes, opening the front door. "I'll tell you when I know." She did so. "Not much. There's canned beans, half a gallon of milk, that box of crackers Mom won't throw out, more beans, a stick of butter, leftover spinach casserole, a cookie, a soggy head of lettuce that needs to be thrown out, snap peas, chicken nuggets, a little bit of ice cream, more beans, and two potatoes with a few eyes. What do you want?"

"Let's cook something new!" Daphne grinned.

They did. The peas, potatoes and crackers were sauteed in most of the butter with a little milk thrown in; what little lettuce was usable was salvaged with a few of the peas and some forgotten carrots; and they served it up on the fine china with chocolate milk in wine glasses.

"I like having dinner without Mom and Dad!" Daphne grinned. "We don't have to have manners all the time."

Sabrina, who had already started planning what they could do with the rest of the food in the house, took a minute to respond. "I don't. It's lonely."

Daphne shrugged. "I guess. Shouldn't they be back by now?"

Sabrina nodded. "And I can't even call them, because Mom left her phone here, and Dad's isn't working."

"Let's watch a movie," Daphne suggested. "We won't have to think about it."

They watched Beauty and the Beast, the only Disney movie Dad had let into the house, which had been a present for Daphne's fifth birthday. Daphne loved it, and Sabrina could stand it. They spent a happy two hours on that, and afterwards, Daphne began listing her plans for her upcoming birthday party, which the movie had reminded her of. Sabrina listened with half an ear.

"I want there to be pink unicorns everywhere, and I want a tiara!" Daphne was saying.

Sabrina blinked, realizing what her sister was saying. "You told me all this already," she said. "Your party's only five days from now."

Daphne grinned. "And my birthday's the day before that! The same day kindergarten ends!"

"I know," Sabrina said tersely. Seriously, it was all the kid had been talking about for a month. She wasn't going to forget her sister's birthday that fast.

"What's wrong?" Daphne asked.

Sabrina shook her head. "Nothing. Time for bed."

"But it's only seven thirty!" Daphne whined, apparently not noticing the abrupt subject shift.

"You bedtime's _supposed_ to be eight," Sabrina said. "Dad's just a softie. Come on, it'll take you half an hour to get ready for bed anyway."

Daphne pouted, but got ready for bed, pulling on her Barbie pajamas, brushing her teeth, and begging Sabrina to read her five storybooks. Sabrina complied, finally getting her to bed around eight thirty. Afterwards, she walked to her room, grabbed her own book, sat down on her bed, thought for a minute, and got up and went to her parent's room. She curled up under the covers with her book, tried to read for a little while, then got up and turned on her mom's CD player. She read for a while, then looked up at a soft scratch on the floor. Daphne was standing in the doorway. She crawled into bed with Sabrina, and wrapped her arms around her.

Sabrina put her book down, turned off the light, and hugged Daphne back.

They stayed curled up like that for the rest of the night. Sabrina wasn't sure whether or not Daphne slept, but when she fell asleep, it was around three in the morning, and her last thought was that she was glad she didn't have school tomorrow.

The rain that had been threatening all day came, and poured down over the girl's roof, splattering against the windows.


	2. Day Two

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

When Sabrina woke up the next morning, it took her a few minutes to remember what had happened yesterday, and for that short time, she was content. If she'd known how long it would be before she felt that way again, she would have held on to the feeling as hard as she could.

When she did remember the day before, her mind went straight to Daphne. What would she tell her? How would she react? How could she take care of her?

After a few moment's debate, she decided that she ought to start with the truth, and move on from there.

It was tempting, though, to just let her sleep.

She shook her head. She couldn't do that.

"Daphne?" Sabrina shook her sister awake.

For once, Daphne woke up easily. "Mom?"

"No, she's not back- yet," Sabrina said, "but it's time for you to get ready for school."

"Do I have to go?" Daphne whined, climbing out of bed.

Sabrina sighed. "You have five days left. Besides, you like school. All your friends are there. Why don't you want to go?"

"Because... just because, that's all," Daphne said.

Sabrina ignored this reasoning and dragged Daphne back to her room to help her pick out an outfit- a denim jumper, striped shirt and leggings, and a pair of black Mary-Janes. "But it's just going to be me here," she pointed out, dressing her forcibly, "You'll be bored."

"But you'll be bored if I don't stay here," Daphne pointed out, squirming into her jumper.

"I'll find something to do," Sabrina said, heading for the kitchen. "Do they give you lunch there, or what?"

"They give us a snack," Daphne said, following her as she climbed onto the counter to feel around the top shelf. "We have to bring our own lunches."

"Can you buy?" Sabrina asked warily, feeling around the shelves for the spare change jar.

"Nobody buys in kindergarten," Daphne pointed out. "None of the parents think we're grown up enough."

"Especially not Dad," Sabrina said dryly as she finally found the change jar. "Ah- ha!"

"So what am I going to do for lunch?" Daphne asked. "Or breakfast? And what about brushing my teeth and washing my face?"

"Can you wash your own face?" Sabrina asked. When Daphne nodded, she continued, "Go do that, and brush your teeth too. We'll buy you breakfast and lunch on the way."

Daphne ran off to do that, while Sabrina snuck into her room to get dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. She'd brush her hair later. That done, they headed off for Daphne's school, stopping at Veronica's favorite market, a little corner store with a strange old man behind the counter who always gave her discounts. They picked up a strudel for Daphne's breakfast and a sandwich for her lunch, then were on their way again, Sabrina shushing Daphne before she could make any comments about their parents. She'd deal with that later.

Once Daphne was safely in school, Sabrina gave a sigh of relief and strolled back towards the apartment. She loved Daphne, but that girl could sure be a pain!

Walking home, she counted the money left from the change jar: $74.96, most of it in 20s. Cheese! How much money did their parents keep lying around? There was probably more in the couch cushions, and she had $13.52 saved up. Daphne had $5.08. Let's see... that made...$93.56. Plenty of money to last them until Mom and Dad came back. Which was sure to be soon.

Right?

What was she thinking? Of course her parents would be back! She'd probably come home and find them sitting there, waiting for her. Or there'd be a message on the answering machine. But just in case, she'd better buy some food on the way back. After all, they were sure to be hungry.

She stopped at the store she'd gotten Daphne's food from to pick up some breakfast for herself. The man behind the counter was watching her. She smiled at him awkwardly and picked out a cream cheese bagel.

"Where's your mother this morning?" the man asked.

"She's not feeling too good right now. She'll probably be better tomorrow." With that and a small smile, Sabrina walked out of the store, shocked at herself. She'd just lied to him! She never lied!

Why had she done it? They'd be back, so there was no need to lie, right? Plus, the man was a friend of Mom's. But... she'd lied so spontaneously, maybe it was her subconscious. They'd learned about that in school. Sometimes the subconscious knew things that people didn't want to admit to themselves. Like that her parents had abandoned her.

But they hadn't!

Had they?

No, they couldn't have!

She thought about that all the way back to the apartment. Had they been short with her and Daphne recently? Seemed fed up? She didn't think so... But Dad had yelled at her last week for breaking that vase. And Mom had seemed tired, and she was eating more, and weird stuff, too... Could that be a sign of stress? Were she and Daphne being a pain?

It couldn't be that. She was at the apartment now. She'd open the door and they'd be there. She took a deep breath. _One, two, three_! She swung the door open.

"Mom? Dad?"

Silence.

She started crying then. She broke down right in the middle of the kitchen, collapsing on the floor, and stayed there for a long time. When she got up, she'd made several decisions.

First off, she wasn't going to worry about her parents anymore. They hadn't had any enemies (they were normal, boring parents), so they must have abandoned them. Thus, they were not Sabrina's problem.

But she'd give them a little while to come back before she did anything, just in case. Maybe they'd been mugged or gotten amnesia or something.

Second, she wouldn't tell anyone that they were gone. She could take care of Daphne perfectly well for herself. She knew where Dad's credit card was, and she knew how to forge her mom's handwriting. They'd be fine on their own.

Third, she wouldn't tell Daphne why they were gone. Five was too young to think your parents didn't love you.

Fourth, she wouldn't cry anymore. She had to be mature now, and mature people didn't cry. She needed to be strong.

The rest of the day went much the same as the one before it, but Sabrina took care to live by her decisions. It was her first step away from being a kid, and she didn't even notice that ten, while older than five, was still entirely too young to live with ideas like that.


	3. The Weekend

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

The next day was Saturday, so Sabrina had to figure out what to do with Daphne for a day, instead of simply sending her off to school. Park, maybe? Or the Natural History Museum or something? She'd ask Daphne what she wanted to do. Once she woke up.

Until then, she went to the kitchen and reheated the last of the creation she and Daphne had whipped up on that first night. She sat at the kitchen table and wondered how the heck parents dealt with this for their whole lives. She'd been taking care of Daphne for two days, and she was already exhausted. It just reinforced her idea that they'd abandoned her, because who could live like this? It was impossible.

She'd changed her mind. Daphne could watch TV or something, and she'd just sleep for the whole weekend. Or Daphne could maybe sleep over at some friend's house. Who wouldn't notice if Daphne's parents didn't make an appearance? There was that one girl who lived with her dad, right? Yeah! Her mom was... dead? No, that was that boy who'd moved. Oh well, she was gone, anyway, and the girl's dad was pretty lenient about everything. She'd ask Daphne what the girl's name was after she woke up. Meanwhile, she'd just close her eyes for a minute...

"Sabrina?" Daphne was asking, suddenly.

"Huh?" Sabrina asked blearily, realizing that she'd fallen asleep at the table.

"I'm hungry, and there's no food in the house. What did you do yesterday while I was in school?" There was accusation in Daphne's voice. _Why didn't you go shopping?_

"Cleaned," Sabrina said, not mentioning her tear fest. "The house was a mess. What time is it?"

"Ten thirty," Daphne answered. "Are we going shopping today?"

"Yeah," Sabrina said, getting up. It was funny, but even after a two-hour nap, she still felt exhausted. She got the change jar off its shelf and extracted the money, then started for the door.

"Umm... Sabrina?" Daphne asked.

Sabrina looked back at her sister. "Yeah?"

"Are we going shopping in our pajamas?"

Sabrina looked down, realizing that she was still wearing her frog-covered pajamas. "No, I just forgot to change, is all. Come on."

They headed back to their bedrooms, where Sabrina helped Daphne get dressed, then changed into her own clothes. Afterwards, they headed for the local market, where they bought a box of the sugariest cereal they could find, a bunch of TV dinners, milk, bread, peanut butter, jelly, and candy. They took the bags home, put the groceries away, and Sabrina made Daphne a bowl of chocolate sugar fruity puffs, or whatever they were called.

"I wah go'n to Anhla's hahs tonut fah thaht sleep'oer." Daphne said through a mouthful of cereal.

Sabrina gave Daphne a what-the-heck? look, and Daphne swallowed her cereal.

"Angela invited mne over for a sleepover tonight, remember? Am I still going?"

Honestly, Sabrina hadn't remembered. She'd never paid much attention to Daphne's social life, or most of what the younger girl did, for that matter. She had her own life, and it didn't revolve around her sister. But she nodded anyway. "Which one is Angela, again?"

"The one with the St. Bernard," Daphne said.

"I don't pay attention to your friends' pets," Sabrina said, deciding that idea was ridiculous enough that she was entitled to point it out.

"Single dad."

"PERFECT!" Sabrina burst out, slamming a hand down on the table.

"What?"

"Nothing," Sabrina replied. "What time should you be there?"

"Two."

"You've got time to take a bath. While you do that, I'll pack your stuff."

Sabrina ran a bubble bath for Daphne, and while they were waiting for it to fill, Daphne picked out which stuffed animals she wanted to pack, plus her special blanket and a few Barbies. Then Daphne took her bath, and Sabrina cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, throwing a few pairs of underwear and a dress in Daphne's bag afterwards. Then she pulled Daphne out of the tub, dressed her again, dried and brushed her hair, and gave her a snack.

By then, it was time to go to Angela's house. Daphne skipped ahead while Sabrina followed more slowly, pulling Daphne's duffel bag behind her. When they made it to Angela's, she waved goodbye to Daphne, who immediately skipped up to Angela's bedroom to do- whatever five-year-olds did, Sabrina wasn't quite sure.

"What time do you want her picked up?" Sabrina asked Angela's dad, watching her sister disappear.

"Oh, I'll drop her off at... three?"

"Sounds good," Sabrina said. "Make sure she brushes her teeth."

"Well aren't you quite the little mother!" Angela's dad said, laughing.

Sabrina walked off with a smile. He'd meant it as a joke, but that was exactly what she would be.

As part of being mature, Sabrina cleaned the house again when she got home, ate a snack, washed her dishes, and did a load of laundry before she collapsed on the couch with the Dick Van Dyke show. She fell asleep halfway through the first episode and stayed that way until the next morning, when she woke up around six.

She'd always been an early riser, so six wasn't that insane for her, but she decided that she'd do something with it today. She took her own bath, ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (that cereal was _way_ too sugary), brushed her teeth, and pulled on the prettiest of her three dresses. Then she went to church.

Sabrina wasn't normally a churchgoer. In her experience, the people who went to church were mostly old, or those flouncy little girls who acted like they were perfect around adults, but stuck their tongues out at you as soon as their backs were turned, and tried to do worse. But today was different, for some reason. The pastor was preaching about how God watched out for the little children, and something about a sparrow and a flower, and during the prayer, Sabrina asked God to take good care of her, and to help her take care of Daphne.

When the sermon was over, she felt different somehow. Confident. Grown-up.

It turned out that there was some sort of potluck at the church that week, so Sabrina stayed for lunch. She even sat with a few of the flouncy girls. A couple of them weren't that bad, actually. She took home half a pan of lasagna, because once the potluck was over, someone left it behind, and the church people were debating what to do with it. She slipped it off the table while nobody was looking and headed home. Now she and Daphne could have dinner, and maybe lunch tomorrow.

She was amazed that nobody noticed her leaving with it, and more than that, she was excited. This was cool. She was going to have to work on this sneaking thing. It could be useful.

Then she got home just in time to meet Daphne, who came home early because she and another of Angela's friends had had a tiff. She and Daphne, who was in one of her brat moods, got in a fight over what to do that night, and ended up playing monopoly until bedtime, because they couldn't agree on what to watch on TV. After Daphne was in bed, Sabrina cleaned up, _again_, then went to bed herself. She was getting good at this parent thing.

* * *

Monday went by in a haze of exhaustion for Sabrina. She got Daphne dressed and off to school just in time, forgot her lunch, ran home to get it, along with some show and tell thing, then straightened up the house. It had finally stopped raining, so she brought her dad's alarm clock onto the fire escape and took a nap there. But she couldn't get comfortable, so she got up, counted the money (there was nowhere near enough), then went for a walk around the city. She'd always loved to do that. She used to do it with her mom all the time, just wandering and people watching. Mom had said she'd make a good detective because she noticed so many things about people.

Then she'd gone back home and eaten lunch, washed her dishes, and handled a bunch of calls about where her parents were (very well in her opinion, considering Dad had missed three days of work; Mom hadn't showed up for three volunteer organizations, one of which she was supposed to make some big speech at; and her boss wanted to know when her vacation would be done). Afterwards, she'd read on the fire escape until the alarm went off, then gone to pick up Daphne.

They'd had an interesting evening, Sabrina trying to keep up with Daphne's boundless energy, and Daphne, through a sense that something other than her missing parents was wrong, trying to cheer Sabrina up by being even more energetic than usual. When Daphne finally calmed down enough to be put to bed, it was nearly midnight, and the house was a mess again. Sabrina then stayed up to fix the apartment so that it would be clean and festive for Daphne's sixth birthday the next day. By the time she finished, it was hardly worth going to sleep, so she took a cold shower, changed, got Daphne's presents out, then woke her up so that they'd have plenty of time to open presents before Kindergarten started.

Sabrina had known where Daphne's presents from their parents were. After all, she'd helped wrap the Barbie, princess dress, bike, and board game. She'd decided to get Daphne a stuffed rabbit, since Daphne had spilled milk on the teddy bear she'd had since she was born, causing it to start smelling disgusting, which led to Dad throwing it out. She knew it wasn't a replacement, but it might help.

Daphne like the rabbit best. This gave Sabrina an immense sense of pride, and her sister's joy in the state of the kitchen and the french toast made staying up all night worth it, somehow. It was the start of a shift of Sabrina's world from around herself to around Daphne, though she didn't know it yet.

The rest of the morning followed what Sabrina was starting to see as a pattern for her life: get up, clean, feed Daphne, dress Daphne, clean Daphne, get Daphne to school, give Daphne more food for later, clean, feed self, pretend things were normal, wait for Daphne to get home, feed Daphne again, entertain Daphne, maybe bathe Daphne, get Daphne off to bed, clean, sleep. Get up. Repeat.

Except that the afternoon was a lot more tiring than usual, because today was the last day of Kindergarten, and Daphne was starting to notice. She knew their parents should have been back by now, would be back if everything was normal. So she also knew something must have happened to them, because the idea that they could just leave never entered her mind. She also knew that this wasn't good for Sabrina, who had gone from slightly pampered eldest child to surrogate parent in a matter of hours. She was worried about Sabrina, honestly. Her big sister was tired all the time, and she wasn't as happy as she should be. Daphne was starting to realize that her house wasn't taken care of magically, that someone had to work for her life to be like it was. She had expected it from her parents, but not Sabrina, and seeing Sabrina try to do it was scary. Plus, what were they going to do for the party tomorrow? There couldn't be a party without grownups!

That was when Daphne decided that if their parents didn't show up the next morning, she would have to take matters into her own hands.


	4. Visitors

**AN~ Most of the foster families will be taken from the books, but not all of them will be, and the orphanage experiences will be entirely made up by me, because I'm pretty sure MB only mentions ONE orphan.**

**EDIT: This is now no longer quite canon, because there are way too many foster parents on my list, compared to what the Grimm Guide has on record.**

* * *

The next morning, Sabrina was awoken by a knock on the door. She groaned and pushed herself out of bed, eyes still half-shut as she stumbled her way to the door. Standing on her landing were two men dressed in black uniforms. Policemen.

"Um... hi?" Sabrina said, acutely aware that she was still in her pajamas and her hair was a mess. She felt much more awake all of a sudden.

"Hello, Sabrina?" the older policeman said. It sounded like a question, but Sabrina didn't really think it was.

Sabrina nodded.

"I'm Officer Dayton, and this is my colleague, Officer Brown. May I speak with your parents, please?" This time, when the older policeman spoke, it was more like a challenge. Still not really a question.

Sabrina shook her head, trying not to pay attention to the Officer Brown, who was extremely nice looking, in her opinion. He had dark hair under his hat, and his face, unlike most police officers' she'd seen, actually looked good with a buzz cut, instead of egg-shaped.

"Why not?" Officer Brown asked.

"They're-" Sabrina hesitated for a second. "Asleep. What's the problem?"

"Last night we received a call from a girl who said she lives in this apartment. She told us that your parents haven't been home since Thursday," said Officer Dayton.

Sabrina felt a stab in her heart. _She_ certainly hadn't called the police. She looked down the hall towards the bedrooms, where Daphne was standing, rabbit dangling from one arm. She squinted at her, pouring all her betrayal into that glare.

"I'm sorry, Sabrina," Daphne said. "I did it for you, though."

"Is it true?" Officer Brown asked.

If it was possible, Sabrina's eyes narrowed even further at her squirming sister. "Yes. But I had everything under control."

"She didn't," Daphne said, clutching the rabbit to her chest. "She was tired all the time, and sad. She shouldn't have to do all that grown-up stuff! She's only ten!"

"And you're only six, and it's not your decision!" Sabrina snapped. "Now they're going to do who knows what with us, and if Mom and Dad _do_ come back, they'll have no clue where we are, and it'll be _your fault_!" Sabrina didn't honestly believe that their parents were coming back, but she'd read Oliver Twist. She knew what happened to orphans. And she just couldn't believe that Daphne had _done _that to her! Didn't she _trust_ her?

"Nonsense," Officer Brown said. "Your parents will know exactly where to look for you. Now, until we can find a family member for you to stay with, you'll have to go the city home. We'll conduct a search, and once we know where your parents are, you two can come right back home. Now why don't you two get cleaned up, and we'll get going?"

It was one of those not-a-questions grownups ask sometimes, so the girls left.

Sabrina glared at Daphne again before entering her room to get dressed. She'd changed her mind about Officer Brown. He wasn't good looking after all, he was ugly. Both the officers were ugly, mean, and interfering people who had no business taking her away! She could manage!

A tiny part of her whispered that Daphne was right, she would need help... eventually. But that didn't mean she had to admit it, or that it needed to be from the police! And Daphne had called right before her party! Didn't she want to have a birthday party?

She got changed, washed her face, and packed a few things she thought were necessary. Toothbrush, shampoo, underwear, a hairbrush, and her favorite book all went into the bag. She almost put a picture of her parents in, but then she changed her mind. It was their fault, too. She turned the picture so it was lying facedown on her dresser, biting her lip. Then she went out to the policemen.

"This is what I want to bring. Today was going to be Daphne's birthday party. Can you tell the people it's canceled?" she asked, setting her bag down. She didn't wait for a response.

She went and helped Daphne pack. Into her suitcase went underwear, socks, a photo album, and the rabbit Sabrina had given her. That addition made Sabrina a little less mad than she'd been before. None of the other stuffed animals were coming, she noted through the softest part of her new armor.

"Why did you do that, Daffy?"

"You needed me to," Daphne said simply.

"Well, from now on, let me be in charge, Okay? I'm older and I'll usually know better," Sabrina said.

"All right," Daphne said, looking smaller than she had a minute ago. "I'm sorry, Sabrina."

"I forgive you," Sabrina said, helping Daphne into a pair of jeans and a pink T-shirt. She had to forgive her that easy, especially when she saw her sister's bottom lip quiver the tiniest bit. But that didn't mean she'd let Daphne make any other decisions anytime soon. After all, look where this one got them!

They went back to the kitchen and sat down at the table, because Officer Brown was pouring them cereal.

"Who would you say is your closest grown-up family member after your parents?" Officer Dayton asked, joining them at the table.

"We don't have anyone else," Sabrina said. "Mom's family is all dead or across the planet or something, and I don't know anything about Dad's. I think they died, too." Geesh. Didn't these people think she'd have called up any aunts she had as soon as her parents didn't come back?

"Daddy said they died," Daphne added. "He always got that look when he said it, though."

"He got that look all the time," Sabrina said rolling her eyes. "Remember the time I wanted to be Tinkerbell for Halloween?"

Daphne giggled. "He got_ so_ mad! What did you end up going as?"

"A puppy," Sabrina made a face. She'd been eight. _Way_ too old to be a puppy for Halloween. Maybe her dad had just been upset about the length of the skirt. Somehow, she didn't think that was it, though.

"Back to the subject, girls," Officer Dayton said, but he was smiling too. "Any close family friends you could stay with? The orphanage will look into this too, but it would be nice if we could give them and idea where to start."

"Mom had a whole bunch of clubs and things, but there wasn't really anyone close. I think they moved away from the city and something happened, or something, so they didn't get too close when they came back or something..." Sabrina shrugged. "Dad didn't make friends too easy. He was jumpy."

"Must've been pretty lonely around Thanksgiving," Officer Brown muttered. Sabrina didn't think she'd been meant to hear that.

The girls finished their cereal right about then, and Officer Brown drove them to the orphanage. It was a gloomy old building that took up half a city block. Made of gray-brown crumbling brick decorated only by the occasional pathetic graffiti tag (as if not even the rebels could summon up the strength to make something beautiful out of this), it looked like a forgotten factory from the Industrial Revolution. A few faces peered cautiously out of the dirty windows at the car. There was a rusty playground in the yard, and a netless basketball hoop attached to the left wall over a cracked concrete floor. The effect was made worse by the gloomy cloud cover and the breeze that blew a few pieces of trash around. It looked like the place was surrounded with its own private layer of gloom.

There was no sign over the door.

_Please let this be the wrong place,_ Sabrina begged someone- she didn't know who.

No such luck.

"Well, girls, we're here." Officer Brown said, parking the car.

* * *

Sabrina took one look at the orphanage entrance way and decided right then that there was no way she and Daphne would be staying there. The inside was even worse than the outside. The walls were painted a disgusting color that might have been yellow once, but had turned into a disgusting shade of mustardy brown. The only pictures on the wall were of people who had worked in the orphanage in the past- all of whom were thin and shriveled looking, with nasty expressions on their faces, as if working in the orphanage had sucked everything out of them. There were cobwebs in all the corners, and the plaster on every single wall was cracked. There was a threadbare rug that had probably started out white trying to cover a concrete floor of the the hallway.

"You poor things," Officer Brown said sympathetically. "I'm going to put some extra speed into this case. I don't want you staying here any longer than you have to."

"Promise?" Sabrina asked warily.

"Promise," Officer Brown reassured her as they entered the orphanage head's office.

Unlike the pictures in the hall, the hear of the orphanage was fat. He had almost no hair, a chubby face, and five chins. The only thing that was similar was that he, too, looked like he'd just been forced to eat a lime whole. He looked up from his danish irritably when they walked in. "Oh. More brats. You fill out the paperwork, bub, the girls go in there to meet their caseworker." He nodded at the door on the far side of the office. He used the wrapper around the bottom of his danish to push a small stack of papers at Officer Brown.

Sabrina and Daphne slid into the room that held their caseworker, wary. Their caseworker sat in an even smaller and dingier office with its only window set behind bars. Her nameplate read _Ms. Minerva Smirt_ in small, dingy letters, and like the pictures in the hall, she was a pinched-looking, bony woman who looked as if her face would crack if she smiled. Her desk suggested that she liked things to be neat and orderly. There were no decorations on the walls, but there was a small stack of books on top of one of the hospital green filing cabinets on her back wall.

"Sit," was the first thing she said.

Sabrina and Daphne complied, sitting on two hard, uncomfortable wooden chairs.

"I'm Ms. Smirt, your caseworker. I received a call from the police department a short time ago about the two of you. Most likely abandoned, completely unhelpful with regards to an adult who could take you in, probably brats whose parents couldn't stand you anymore," she was taking notes on a pad as she said this. "You'll be staying here until we can find someplace to take you in, and until then, put these on." She handed them a pair of orange jumpsuits.

Sabrina and Daphne grabbed the jumpsuits and, as there was no bathroom, squeezed into Ms. Smirt's tiny closet. The jumpsuits were far too big, but Sabrina pulled off her belt and used it to hold Daphne's pants up, and decided they could manage. Then they left the closet and followed Ms. Smirt on the grand tour.

"This is the main office," Ms. Smirt said as they walked back through the director's room. "The orphanage has a total of ten caseworkers, of which I am senior. The other offices are across the hall." She seemed very proud of her location.

"Remember your promise." Sabrina whispered to Officer Brown, who was still filling out papers.

He nodded.

"Grab your bags, girls, We'll put them in storage until you get a foster home." Ms. Smirt said, walking out of the room without looking back.

The girls pulled their bags along as they followed Ms. Smirt, but after a few minutes, Sabrina grabbed Daphne's, because the six-year-old was having too much trouble with it.

"On the left is the cafeteria," Ms. Smirt said, still walking briskly. "The door to the basement is in there. That's where the naughty children go."

Sabrina peeked into the cafeteria. It was empty, a filthy mess that looked as if it had seen better days, with rows of dented metal picnic tables standing parallel to a serving station. The whole place seemed to fit the description of having seen better days, Sabrina noticed as they headed upstairs. The second floor consisted of a series of bland classrooms and a 'rec room' that would be more appropriately called a _wreck_ room. The third story was filled by two huge bedrooms, where most of the children were. The orange jumpsuits they wore were the most colorful things in the building, and they looked to be sullen, as a rule.

Finally, they reached the attic. It was a big, cobwebby place with no electricity, and Sabrina doubted that the top had ever seen light from any source other than the low row of cracked windows. It smelled like dust and was entirely too was pretty sure she heard bats rustling in the eaves. The floor, however, was covered in suitcases and duffle bags, each stuck with a piece of masking tape emblazoned with a name. Ms Smirt pulled a roll of masking tape out of her pocket and placed it on the girl's bags.

"Take anything you'll need out of the bags, girls, you might not see it again for a while," she said, writing _S. Grimm_ on one bag and_ D. Grimm_ on the other. She'd gotten them backwards, Sabrina noticed.

Sabrina opened her bag and pulled out most of what was in it, leaving the ordinary clothes she'd packed. Apparently she wouldn't be needing them. Daphne took out her rabbit. Both Ms. Smirt and Sabrina raised an eyebrow, but made no comment.

By this time, it was surprisingly late. It had been a long drive to the orphanage, and the tour had taken even more time.

"Bedtime!" Ms. Smirt said, once they had gotten all their things. "I'll have schedules made up for you in the morning."

She showed them to their beds. Sabrina was too tired to protest, even though it couldn't be later then seven o' clock, and none of the other children were in bed yet. Besides, she figured there would be enough battles yet to come, with Ms. Smirt and the others in the orphanage. Better to let this one go and save her strength.

Even if all she'd had to eat that day was a bowl of cereal and a granola bar from Officer Brown's car.


	5. The Wreck Room

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

The next morning, Sabrina woke up to Ms. Smirt's hand on her shoulder, shaking her roughly.

"The new children make breakfast," Ms. Smirt said. "Get dressed and come downstairs."

Thinking that this might have been nice information to have _before_ she had to head to the kitchen, Sabrina got up. She was still wearing her jumpsuit, since someone had stolen her nightgown while she brushed her teeth the night before. Passing Daphne, who was rubbing sleepy sand out of her eyes and yawning, Sabrina headed to the bathroom. Once there, she brushed her teeth in a sink covered in who-knows what, then washed the brush thoroughly before giving it to Daphne. Then she brushed her hair, braided Daphne's, and hid the hairbrushes in a hole she'd found in her granite-hard mattress. It was so lumpy nobody would think there was anything wrong with that.

They stumbled together down to the kitchen, where a formidable-looking woman grunted at them and handed them a pair of hairnets, which they put on. Then she gestured with her carving knife at a pile of food that looked like it belonged in a garbage dump. Sabrina guessed that they were supposed to put it in the pot, and did so while Daphne stirred. Eventually, the mixture got so thick that Daphne wasn't strong enough to move it, and Sabrina had to take over.

Sabrina had been the strongest girl at her old school, as she told everyone who would listen. Twenty chin-ups in a row, and _real_ chin-ups, too, not the fakey, girly ones the other kids did. She got it form her mom, who was thin, but all muscle, and pretty besides. Before all this, Sabrina had wanted to be just like her mom, and had tried to exercise with her every time she could. It had paid off, and the 'food' wasn't that hard to stir. She wouldn't want to eat it, though. Even if she was strong enough to stir it, she wasn't sure she was strong enough to muscle her way past her gag reflex. That hadn't been part of her exercise regimen.

Once they finished cooking the 'food' (it had started to smoke), they got the attention of the cook, narrowly avoided her swinging carving knife before she remembered who they were. She waved the knife at the door vaguely, and Sabrina translated this to mean that they should bring the pot out of the kitchen. They did so, and were then instructed by Ms. Smirt to serve it to the other orphans, who shuffled their way in blearily, also wearing their orange jumpsuits. That was a relief. Sabrina would have hated to be the only one dressed like this.

None of the others seemed to care about the two new girls who were serving them food, much less how disgusting their breakfast was. For the most part, they looked as if they'd given up hoping for something better. One boy gave Sabrina a pitying look and a half smile, which she returned, before sitting down with Daphne at a mostly empty table to eat. Sabrina was horrified to find that she was so hungry after yesterday's pathetic meals that she even managed to eat most of a plate of the stuff. Daphne licked both plates clean.

After breakfast, Ms. Smirt handed them a pair of schedules. "You'll have school year-round here, from eight to three every day. Afterwards, you'll have an hour of community service, to make up for the fact that you're eating the city's food, drinking their water, and spending their money for no good reason. Then you have free time until dinner, unless you're bad. Then you either go to the basement, or get chores around here. After dinner you get one hour free time, then it's bed. No exceptions.

Sabrina refrained from making any snarky comments, but something must have shown in her face, because Ms. Smirt asked her "What, Suzy?"

"Sabrina," Sabrina corrected her. "It just sort of seems like the government could do a little better, since my parents were always complaining about how high their taxes were and all."

"Your parents left you, so I wouldn't mention them ever again if I were you," Ms. Smirt said. "And I'll let your comment slide this time, but _never_ backtalk to me again. _Ever_."

Sabrina bit her lip, fuming inside, but she nodded. Then she and Daphne scurried out of the room as fast as possible to their classes.

The day just got worse from there.

First they got lost, then Sabrina, having found Daphne's classroom, was late to her own. Once she finally got into her class, they were doing work that was far more advanced then any Sabrina had done, and Sabrina quickly found that she would have to take the offer of tutoring from most of her teachers to get herself caught up. The worst was English. They were doing a unit on fairy tales, and Sabrina hadn't had any background information on the subject at all. Lunch tasted just as bad as breakfast, but thankfully she didn't have to help make it, so she could pretend it wasn't garbage.

After school, Sabrina spent her whole afternoon in tutoring, as did Daphne, because the two were exempt from community service for the first day. She wasn't sure what she'd do once she had to start picking up trash or whatever. Skip sleep? For the hour after dinner, she tried to get a spot in one of the showers, failed, and ended up just sitting on her bed, commiserating with Daphne, who personally thought her day had been worse. Sabrina decided that, up to a point, this would be good for Daphne, because she _was_ sort of spoiled. She certainly wouldn't be after this.

The next week and a half followed the same pattern: Sabrina and Daphne trying to get caught up on the community service and schoolwork and all that, as well as not making any waves, or maybe even making friends. It was miserable, but it was routine, and they fell into bed exhausted, despite the fact that they were going to bed at eight o' clock. It was after that that they started to have trouble. Because after that, they started to have free time.

* * *

Sabrina went into the rec room for the first time on a Wednesday, when her teachers had told her that she should stop bothering them because they had better things to do. Daphne followed her, her rabbit clutched under her arm, where it had stayed practically the whole week. Entering the rec room, she was immediately introduced to the orphanage hierarchy.

First: The biggest, meanest kids, hogging the space in front of the TV.

Next: The caseworker's pets, who hovered on the edges of things, looking for kids to report.

Third: The normal, average kids, who sat around trying to get a glimpse of the TV around the bullies' backs without making waves. The kinds of kids who just coasted through everything, and never got noticed.

Last: The weaklings and the youngest kids, scared people who either hid in corners, staring at the backs of people's heads who blocked the TV, or played board games to pretend they had friends. The group Daphne would, without someone to stand up for her, end up in. Absolutely unacceptable.

There was another group too, though. They were the kids who were probably the smartest, the ones who couldn't rule the pack because they weren't strong enough, but didn't want to be suck-ups or coasters, and were too good to be rejects. The kids who knew about the pecking order but ignored it. That had been the group of people Sabrina was part of in school. She'd been one of the ones who actually could have been top of the pack, if she wanted, but preferred being a loner. Life was simpler that way.

She didn't think she'd be able to be part of that group now, not with Daphne. It would be better to slip into the crowd and hope nobody noticed her.

The room itself was no more appealing than the people in it. The majority of the half-destroyed couches, beanbags, and chairs were focused around the tiny, grainy TV in the middle of the back wall, excepting four, which were seated around a rickety card table. On the left wall, near the card table, was a set of shelves covered with a mess of board games, the missing pieces of those games, and at least five incomplete decks of cards. The right side of the room, on the other hand, didn't even have a working light. Underneath the dark fixture was a foosball table with broken players that could be turned over to become an broken air hockey set, and a pool table whose rug was mostly ripped up and either pulled off or duct taped back down. The room smelled like cat pee and cigarettes.

For the most part, the 'losers' of the orphanage sat on the left side of the room with the card table, trying to play without being noticed, the loners hung around the pool and foosball tables, and everyone else tried to watch T.V. Of course, the minute Sabrina and Daphne walked in, everyone immediately stared at them. One of the biggest kids stood up and walked over to them. Sabrina smirked as, unnoticed by him, a mousy teacher's pet slipped into his chair and changed the channel.

"You new?" the boy asked, crossing his arms and blocking their way into the rest of the room.

"Recognize me?" Sabrina asked sarcastically. After all, she'd been there a week and a half. Her policy of being quiet and hoping to coast by evaporated at the sight of the kid. She hated people like this jerk, and she was _not_ going to be terrorized by him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Sharp, aren't you? What's your name?"

Sabrina raised one back. He was smarter than she'd thought. Good. She could use a challenge. "Grimm. Yours?"

"Michelson. That your sister?" He nodded at Daphne.

Sabrina nodded back.

"Huh," Michelson grunted. "Not much family resemblance. Tubby little thing, isn't she?"

"Shut up!" Sabrina snapped, her hands closing into fists.

"Make me. Besides, you don't want to be tied down by a little girl," Michelson said. "She can go over there." He nodded towards the card table crowd.

Sabrina eyed the cowering kids on the left side of the room. "She stays with me." She grabbed Daphne's hand, backing up her firm statement. Daphne would never end up like that if she could help it.

"I'll offer one more time." Michelson glowered at the girls fiercely. "You could get a good seat near the TV with us- if you can hold onto it- and dump the tot, or you could stick with her in the corner."

Sabrina raised and eyebrow. "Is there a door number three? 'Cause I'm not a wimp, and she stays with me."

"Nope." Michelson said. "I don't think you'll feel so strong after I pummel you."

"You do that," Sabrina said dryly. "By the way, someone stole your seat."

When Michelson turned around to check, Sabrina pulled Daphne over to the dark side of the room as quietly as possible, hiding behind some of the other kids and hoping they wouldn't call her out. Michelson searched for her for a few minutes, then gave up for the easier and more available teacher's pet, who, of course, didn't get much of a beating, otherwise there'd be adult involvement, which no kid who still possessed their spirit wanted.

One of the boys who had been hiding Sabrina and Daphne turned around. "Nice show." He smiled at them, and Sabrina realized it was the boy from the first day.

"Thanks," Sabrina said. "I got that a lot back home. You all right, Daffy?"

Daphne nodded. "Thanks for not letting me go over there. They looked sad."

"No kidding," Sabrina said.

Daphne wandered off to watch the other kids attempt to play pool on the uneven table. Some of them were pretty good at it.

"She's important to you?" the boy asked.

"Only family I got left. I don't want to turn out like the other kids here, with nobody who cares about them."

"Yeah, I get that," the boy said. "He's not going to give up, Michelson."

"I figured," Sabrina said.

"Aren't you worried?" the boy asked.

"About him?" Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "Not really. I've been in fights before. I can deal with that. Smirt, on the other hand-"

"You have Smirt?" the boy asked. "Ouch. She's the worst caseworker in the building. But she gets the most kids because she wants a promotion, and you don't get one until you get enough kids placed for at least a year. Most of her kids have a maximum of a month before they're back here. I'm Jason, by the way."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sabrina." She gave him the tiniest of almost-smiles.

He introduced her to the other kids in the pool section of the rec room, who seemed to waver between being surprised or impressed at the fact that she'd stood up to Michelson and indifference, because they were pretty sure she'd end up either in a foster home, as a pretty blonde ten-year-old, or on the other side of the room, because she was small and skinny.

Sabrina didn't mind. She'd prove to them that she was more than she looked.


	6. The Keatons

**AN~ I've realized while editing this that the biggest thing that I've needed to change is showing instead of telling. This is what writing classes teach you.**

**Lara D: You weren't logged in when you wrote your review, so: thanks for the review, don't you hate it when that happens?**

* * *

Not much happened during the next month. Sabrina kept sharing her toothbrush with Daphne. She figured out that the best time to get showers was at five or so, because that was when Sponge Bob came on, and almost everyone tried to get at the T.V. instead of the bathroom. She still didn't feel very clean- the water that came out of the showers was kind of brown, and she ran out of soap and shampoo after a few weeks. The two girls hung around with the loner group, which had always struck Sabrina as a weird term. She knew there was a word that meant two things that shouldn't go together, and in the process of finding out that the word she was looking for was oxymoron, she read the majority of the dictionary under the covers at night with a flashlight that one of the janitors had thrown out, saying it wasn't working. In reality it only needed new batteries, but Sabrina wasn't going to tell him that.

She thought it was a very good sign of how far her life had fallen that she was reading the dictionary for fun as a sign of rebellion.

Michelson was still bothering her, but because of who she hung out with, he never did anything big. She could deal with a little bullying now and then, as long as he left Daphne alone. The other kids slowly came to accept her as one of them, and Daphne was the pet of the group. Sabrina had yet to prove she was something special, but she was still planning, and her plan included staying under adult radar for as long as possible.

Having people to show them the ropes was a wonderful thing, and the girls started to learn the way the orphanage worked.. They learned that the reason it was such a depressing place was that, for budget reasons, it had been combined with the Juvenile Detention Center for their area. Michelson was in for some undisclosed crime that was rumored to be anything from murder to arson to grand larceny. Sabrina learned how to pick locks from one of the juvie kids, and she soon beat him at his own game, unlocking the door to the closet that held the sports equipment, which the janitor (same one who threw out the flashlight) had lost ages ago. This got the kids ordered outside whenever it wasn't raining, 'for their health,' according to the adults. Sabrina snuck into the kitchen with the juvie loners on those days, learning how to get in and steal just enough of the adult's food to keep from starving when the food was completely inedible (often), but not enough for the cook to notice.

For that month, the only truly interesting thing that happened was that Jason's older sister came back from the basement. Daria, or Dare, as she was called, had been locked downstairs for a week after she stole Smirt's underwear out of her drawer- while she was in the bedroom. She wasn't even slightly shaken up after her sojourn (one of Sabrina's vocabulary words) in the depths. In fact, she seemed to consider it an adventure.

Dare was an extremely pretty seventeen year old, four years Jason's senior. She had brown hair that she stuck back in a ponytail and chopped off with scissors (which she'd also stolen from Smirt) whenever it got too long. Her goals in life were to drive the orphanage adults crazy until she turned eighteen, then haul her younger brother's butt out of there at the speed of light, after which she'd move to Alaska. When she was eighteen she'd inherit her parent's money, which was enough to buy them the start of a new life up there.

Upon meeting Sabrina and Daphne, Dare immediately dubbed them the Sisters Grimm, and decided that Sabrina was a kindred spirit who should be trained to take her place once she left. Sabrina still hadn't done anything to make her stand out much, but she accepted the role gladly, and learned all that Dare had to teach. The two most important lessons were: family first, always, and keep a good sense of humor.

The month passed fairly quickly, until Smirt called Sabrina and Daphne down to her office to give them the news: she'd found them their first foster home.

* * *

Their lovely foster parents were Mr. and Mrs. Keaton, who seemed to be of the opinion that Sabrina and Daphne were a little young, but they would do nicely. They drove them home as soon as the girls got their bags, seeming to be in a hurry for some reason. As soon as they reached their destination, the girls found out why.

"You'll be all right here, right, dears?" Mrs. Keaton asked.

"Ummm..." Sabrina glanced around the house warily. It didn't look very childproofed, with all those glass things and spindly pieces of furniture over the white carpets. "I guess. Why?"

"We're going on a cruise, you see, and we'd like you to watch the house for us," Mr. Keaton said.

Daphne stared at them. "You- you're leaving us?"

"Just for a week. Or two. Whenever," Mr. Keaton said airily.

"Of course, we don't know if we can trust you with our house, so we'll have to lock you in the basement until we get back," Mrs. Keaton said. "If you don't break anything there, we'll know we can trust you, and then things will work out!" She said this while steering the girls to a door in the hallway, opening it, and pushing them in.

"But-" Daphne said, looking at the dark basement.

"Oh, you'll be fine!" Mrs. Keaton said with a grin, shutting the door. They heard a click, and the door locked, leaving them alone in the dark of the basement.

* * *

Sabrina flicked on the basement light, then ran down the stairs to a window high in the wall at the front of the room. Daphne followed her more slowly, whimpering. Sabrina watched with eyes narrowed into a death glare as the Keatons drove away. Once they were out of sight, she turned around against the wall and slid to the floor.

"So much for loving foster homes," she muttered.

"They left us!" Daphne said, staring around the basement. She seemed like she was still in shock, but she was still curious.

Sabrina joined her, and they spent a few minutes searching their new home. There was one finished room in the basement, which looked to be a sort of spare bedroom, with a pullout couch and a small T.V. The rest of the basement consisted of a laundry room, a workshop, and a large space used for junk storage. Sabrina was searching the junk for food when Daphne spoke.

"Sabrina?"

Sabrina looked up. "Hm?"

"I have to pee," Daphne said, biting her lip and squirming.

"Oh geez," Sabrina said, exasperated. She made a face. "Our loving foster parents forgot that there's no bathroom down here. Can you hold it for a few more minutes?"

Daphne nodded, and Sabrina ran back to the workshop. She searched for a few minutes, then, finding what she needed, she headed for the staircase, mounted it, and set about picking the lock. Once she heard the telltale click, she sighed in relief, opened the door, and entered the ground floor of the house. Daphne followed, and a few minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom, looking much more comfortable.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Well..." Sabrina said, "Since they're not here, I say we take advantage of this our freedom in lovely house here and live in the lap of luxury!"

"What's that mean?" Daphne asked.

"It means that we can take hot showers and dry off with fuzzy towels and eat real food and sleep in beds that aren't as hard and lumpy as uncooked noodles, and we can get up whenever we want, and not have to listen to evil grown-ups!"

"_AWESOME_!" Daphne shouted. "What do we do first?"

"_I'm_ taking a shower," Sabrina said.

The two girls spent a happy few hours pampering themselves in the bathroom. Mrs. Keaton was obviously a big one for body care, and the bathroom was full of all sorts of creams and bubble bath mixtures. The girls tried them all. They then wrapped themselves in bathrobes that were far too big while their clothes were washed and dried, after which they dressed in clean clothes for the first time in over a month. Next, they went to the kitchen and made themselves _real_ food that, despite being some healthy, whole wheat snack, tasted amazing in comparison to the food they'd been eating at the orphanage. By the time they'd cleaned up, it was time for bed, and Sabrina and Daphne, instead of sleeping on the couch bed that had obviously been prepared for them, went up to Mr. and Mrs. Keaton's bedroom and snuggled under the pristine white sheets of the bedroom.

They spent the next week in a glorious repeat of that afternoon, or romping and enjoying themselves in the huge house. One day, Daphne and Sabrina were running around the house playing tag, when the front door opened, right as Sabrina entered the front hall. She skidded to a stop inches from the Keatons, her smile melting off her face at the expression on Mr. Keaton's face. She winced at the sound of a crash from the living room, where Daphne was apparently still chasing her.

"Umm... Hi," Sabrina said, smiling nervously in hopes that it would lessen the storm she felt coming.

Mr. Keaton didn't say anything. He and Mrs. Keaton just walked around the house, taking in the damage (which Sabrina had totally been planning to clean up after dinner), looking angrier and angrier. At last, they returned to the kitchen, where Mr. Keaton picked up the phone and called the orphanage. Neither adult had spoken to the girls this whole time.

"You've been bad girls," Mrs. Keaton said, speaking to them for the first time. "Maybe they'll send us some good, well-behaved children next time. Request that specifically, George."

Mr Keaton nodded, then continued his conversation. Sabrina found that she couldn't hear what he was saying until he turned to them and said, "Come on, girls, we're taking you back."

The car ride was silent. Sabrina almost felt guilty, but then she remembered that she'd been locked in a basement with no bathroom, no air conditioning, and no food for a week at the beginning of August, and she decided that the Keatons deserved it. Once they reached the orphanage, the girls grabbed their bags, and the group headed for Ms. Smirt's office, still silent.

"Here are your children back," Mrs. Keaton said. "They're quite naughty."

"I see. Well, girls?" Ms. Smirt asked, looking down her hooked nose at them disdainfully. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

"We broke one stinking lamp the whole time we were there," Sabrina pointed out. "And I would have stayed in the basement like a good little girl, but there was no food and no bathroom. Daphne had to go, so I did what I had to. I hope your next kid breaks the whole house."

"Meanies," Daphne muttered.

Ms. Smirt looked shocked. "I'm _very_ sorry, I have no idea what got into these two, and I assure you they'll be appropriately punished. However, I have another child ready to leave who I'm sure will suit your family much better."

She went to the closet and removed a boy from it. Sabrina recognized him as one of the suck-ups who wouldn't dare do anything wrong, ever. Or at least didn't dare get caught doing it. Honestly, she'd rather take whatever punishment was coming to her than act like that. It was demeaning. The Keatons obviously recognized him as that sort of boy, too, because their faces lit up, and they walked out of the office with smiles on their faces, fawning over their new child.

"Now girls," Ms. Smirt said disapprovingly, "I warned you, didn't I?"

"About what?" Sabrina asked, deciding to feign ignorance. They really hadn't done anything wrong.

"About where the naughty children go," Ms. Smirt said, obviously not buying the ignorance bit.

"The basement, right?" Daphne asked.

"Yes," Ms. Smirt said. "And I expect you to _stay_ there."

She led them to the basement door, shoved them through it so hard that Sabrina almost fell down the stairs, and locked them in.

"Not again," Sabrina muttered as the door closed them in blackness once again.


	7. Basement

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

The orphanage basement was much less appealing than the Keaton's. For one thing, it took Sabrina around ten minutes to find the light switch (a cruddy string hanging from the ceiling) by which time she had stumbled over at least a dozen boxes and hit her head on the underside of a staircase. When she turned on the light, finally, it was a single dim, flickering bulb in the center of the cavernous room. What it illuminated wasn't exactly enough to warm the girl's hearts as they gazed around the windowless space. It was filled with everything the orphanage didn't want anymore but couldn't throw out, for one reason or another: wobbly bassinets, old clothes that had apparently been donated for the orphans, various boxes of toys that read 'donation' on them, and the like. The walls were made of slimy, decaying cinder blocks, and the steps were in a similar state of water-damaged disrepair. Sabrina was kind of glad she hadn't seen them on the way down. The whole place smelled like mildew, and Sabrina could head water dripping from the pipes along the walls into filthy puddles below. It was freezing.

Sabrina decided that the first order of business was to search for a sleeping bag or something that could be made into a bed for Daphne. Three boxes later, she hadn't found anything remotely useful unless you could count a stack of moth-eaten sweaters in a size more fit for a small whale than a human. She was getting fed up as she opened the fourth box, and that was when she she _did_ find something else-

"Dare?" Sabrina gasped.

Dare sat up and stretched. "Hey, kiddo. Thanks for that. Nice to see you again."

"Same," Sabrina said, still stunned. "What are you DOING here?"

"I got in trouble. Smirt was fed up, and my caseworker was out, so she locked me in a box. I'm never going to get over that."

"How come?" Daphne asked.

"I was a little claustrophobic already, but now I'm terrified."

"You don't look it," Sabrina said dryly.

"Rule number three, girlfriend," Dare said, shoving herself out of the box piece by stiff piece. "Never let them see you're scared. Ever. It makes them think they've won, and it eggs them on. You aren't scared, they give up eventually."

"What does claustrowhatsit mean?" Daphne interjected.

"Claustro_phobic_," Sabrina corrected, "Means afraid of small spaces."

Above them, the basement door creaked open, and a much brighter light shone down the basement steps to the floor a few feet to the girl's let.

"Frick," Dare muttered, "I oughta go back, or we'll all be in even bigger trouble."

Sabrina and Daphne helped Dare back into the box, They closed it and sat on the lid as innocently as possible as Ms. Smirt came down with a plate of slop and two sippy cups.

"Eat this. You can come out in two days," she said, walking back out.

As soon as she was gone, Sabrina opened the box back up. "I'm assuming that's rule number four?" she asked Dare. "Do what's necessary to keep other people safe?"

"Only for people you really care about," Dare said, smiling as she climbed out of the box again. "But you're catching on. You'll be ready to take my place in three months, no doubt!"

Sabrina grinned, handing Dare her sippy cup. "That when you can leave?"

"Gone like the wind," Dare said, taking the cup and guzzling half of the water in a few seconds. "What're you two here for, anyway? It usually takes Smirt at least two months to get mad enough to send people down here."

All three girls sat down on the box lid to pick at the plate of slop. Dare was the only one who seemed hungry enough to eat much of it.

"Our foster family locked us in the basement!" Daphne exploded. "And there wasn't any food or a bathroom or _anything_ down there, so Sabrina broke us out, and I broke a lamp the day our 'parents' came back, and they got mad, and when they brought us back, Sabrina yelled at them and I called them meanies. I don't think Ms. Smirt is happy about that."

"She's never happy." Dare said.

"I like reading her book titles. They're funny," Sabrina said, picking a bit of gunk and poking at it with a plastic fork.

"Really?" Daphne said. "What do they say?"

"They're all self-help books for lonely people," Sabrina said, "or sometimes romance novels."

"Ha!" Dare crowed. "I never noticed that! Good eyes, squirt!"

The next two days were- not miserable, because of Dare's presence, which meant tutorials on being an independent protector for Sabrina and jokes and being included for Daphne- but not happy, either. Dare tried to hide it, but spending time in that box was affecting her, and she had to spend time in it, because Smirt came down to check on them sometimes, and always delivered their meals personally. Besides, it was sort of impossible to be in a good mood when you were stuck in a disgusting, filthy basement with one plate of unidentified glop and two sippy cups for three people. Sabrina was pretty sure that Ms. Smirt was trying to kill Dare, because she never brought any food for the older girl. When Sabrina asked her about it, Dare smiled grimly and said that she wouldn't put it past the caseworker.

When Smirt finally came to let them out, she opened the box with a self-satisfied smile and was shocked to see Dare sit up lazily and smile. "Thanks for that, best nap I've had in ages."

"But you- wha- who- _girls_?"

Sabrina and Daphne quickly smoothed their grins into shocked expressions.

"Dare?" Sabrina asked. "You were down here too?"

"What did you do?" Daphne asked.

"Something that-" Dare said, pausing to eye Ms. Smirt thoughtfully, "Isn't fit to be discussed in present company."

"She dumped itching powder on my office chair," Ms. Smirt said tightly, glaring at Dare.

"Oooh," Sabrina hissed, "That must have been delectable."

Ms. Smirt nodded, heading for the stairs, apparently satisfied that Sabrina and Daphne hadn't know Dare was with them. Sabrina and Dare shared a muffled snicker as they followed her up the stairs, because she obviously didn't know what delectable meant.

"What's delectable mean?" Daphne whispered.

Sabrina whispered back "Desirable, wonderful. It usually talks about food, but it was the best word I could come up with on short notice."

"Oh," Daphne said, smiling. "That's funny. Doesn't Ms. Smirt know what it means?"

"Apparently not." Dare grinned. "Nice one, 'Brina."

"Thanks." Sabrina smiled back, entering the upstairs and basking in the dirty sunlight that filtered weakly through the windows.

"Ah, it's good to be back!" Dare said, spinning around with her arms outstretched. "I missed this place."

"You spent too much time in that box," Sabrina muttered, and the girls laughed all the way back to their beds.


	8. Mr Dennison

**AN~ Sad chapter. Maybe there'll be some humor or something hopeful next chapter... But I kind of doubt it. Hehehe, I'm being mean to Sabrina! Mwahahah. And yes, there's implied child abuse here. This story's getting darker, I might up the rating soon. **

* * *

Sabrina had had a miserable week. She had gone alone to check on the dog, and told Daphne that it was fine, a lie. The owner had put it out of it's misery while she watched. The older Dennison kids took after their father in that they were big, mean, and stupid. Mary and the second youngest, Laura, on the other hand, were like their mother, pretty, quiet, and smart. Sabrina and Mary quickly became each other's consolations for their miserable life, but she couldn't take much more of this. It was getting harder and harder to hide the bruises from Daphne, and she kept waiting for the day it was Daphne who got hit.

Finally, on September first, just before the girls climbed into the truck for the night, it happened. Mr. Dennison had been drinking, and Daphne tripped, which was one flaw too many on her list for the day, and he snapped and slapped her face. That was the last straw.

That night, after everyone was asleep, Sabrina snuck back into the house and woke Mary. "I came to say goodbye. He hit Daphne. I can't let that happen again. We're going tonight. Promise you won't tell?"

"But-" Mary whispered, "But I need you! You're all that's keeping me sane anymore!"

"Sing up for college then." Sabrina said. "Leave, and take Laura with you. You have a job, and you know where he keeps his money! Take it and the truck and find yourself an apartment somewhere! Go to college! You deserve better than this, Mary! Don't let him drag you down!"

Mary got a determined expression on her face, and for a minute, Sabrina thought she was going to say no again, but then- "I will. He's hit me one too many times, too. I'm done."

"Good!" Sabrina said. "'Bye, then!"

"What are you talking about?" Mary asked. "We're going together! He'll catch you if you leave and he's got the truck!"

"Are you saying-?" Sabrina asked.

"Yes!" Mary whisper-shouted.

Fifteen minutes later, they were ready. Mary had enough money to get her started, the truck keys, her college application, a sleeping Laura, and both their luggage. She'd written a note explaining why she'd gone and promising to pay him back- HIS money. It turned out most of the money they had had been made by Mary anyway, so there wasn't much paying back to do.

And they were off. Driving through the night, Sabrina turned on the radio and was grateful for rednecks and their six-seater trucks that had room for two sleeping five-year olds and their big sisters.

They found an apartment near the city, but not in it, and Mary got started in college, where she bloomed beautifully. Sabrina went to the elementary school, which was incredibly easy after the orphanage, with Daphne and Laura, and they managed very well for about two weeks.

Then, in mid-September, on a night when Mary had taken Laura out to a movie and Sabrina had opted to stay home with Daphne, who had fallen asleep early, there came a knock on the door. Sabrina opened it, only to see Ms. Smirt.

"Well, Susy, what a pleasure to see you again. You've been naughty." She said.

"Sabrina." Sabrina said. "Sorry. Are you going to punish Mary and Laura, too?"

"Unfortuonately, they fall outside my jurisdiction. You and your sister, on the other hand, are coming back with me. Now."

Sabrina decided it was better not to argue. She woke Daphne up, and left her to bother Ms. Smirt while she wrote Mary a note.

_Dear Mary-_

_Ms. Smirt came to get us. I didn't want to get you in trouble, so I decided it was better to just go. Whatever you do, don't go home. I'll write to you when I can, but it might not be often. Don't write me, it won't go through. _

_I love you and will miss you so much,_

_Sabrina Grimm_

Then she followed Ms. Smirt back to the orphanage car, back to the city and the sorrow it was beginning to entail. Upon arriving back, Ms. Smirt gave the girls three days in the basement- 'to think about the consequences of running away,' she said. The days were horrible, completely dull without Dare to brighten things up, and when they emerged, Dare was in a bad mood because Chris had been sent to a foster home, the schoolwork load had almost doubled now that it was mid-September, and as a consequence, the loners were a fairly surly bunch. All in all, things were not going well.

But it was at times like this that Daphne came into her element. She was bright and cheerful, overcompensating for Sabrina's melancholy gloom along with Jason. The two were trying everything to cheer Sabrina and Dare up, and they began to form a mentorship bond not unlike Dare and Sabrina's, Daphne learning how to be the funny one.

On the last day of September, Sabrina and Daphne were again called to Ms. Smirt's office.

"Officer Brown is here to see you, girls." Ms. Smirt said stiffly, leaving the room.

"Did you find them?" Sabrina asked hopefully.

"All we found was their car." Officer Brown said. "It was by Central Park, and there were no clues other than a bloodred handprint on the dashboard. Paint, fortunately. Now I know we already asked you this, but all signs lead to kidnapping or-"

"Don't." Sabrina said. "Not around Daphne."

"Not around me what?" Daphne asked.

"I'll tell you later." Sabrina said. "And my parents were boring. Unless they led some secret life Daphne and I had no idea of, I don't know who would kidnap them."

"Daphne, could you step out of the room for a minute?" Officer Brown asked. When she had complied, he looked at Sabrina. "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Sabrina asked.

"You seem years older." Officer Brown said. "I know you're mature, but you seem like you're thirteen now. Has living here done that to you?"

Sabrina shrugged. "I guess."

"I'm sorry, then." Officer Brown said. "We'll continue the search for another month, but if something hasn't turned up by then, we'll have to call off the search. I apologize for not being able to get you out of this."

"It's not your fault." Sabrina said. "If they didn't want to be found, there's not much you can do about it."

"You can't seriously think they-"

"Left us?" Sabrina laughed bitterly. "What else can I think? I almost quit after a week of watching Daphne, who can blame them for quitting after years?"

"That's quite a burden for a ten-year-old to carry around." Officer Brown said sadly.

"It's not the only one I've got." Sabrina said. "Thanks for your time."

"Yes..." Officer Brown said. "Goodbye, then, Sabrina."


	9. The Johnsons

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

After Officer brown left, Sabrina took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. Then, once she was sure her face wouldn't show her emotions, she went to go face Daphne. Ms. Smirt grabbed her by the arm before she left, though, squeezing it a little too tight.

"Don't bother," she said. "Your new foster parents will be here momentarily.

"What does momentarily mean?" Daphne asked Sabrina.

"It means soon, or, like right now," Sabrina replied, watching a pair of adults enter the room.

"Hi," Daphne said. "I'm Daphne, who are you?"

"I'm Mrs. Johnson, and this is my husband, Mr. Johnson," the lady said. She was tall and thin, with a pinched looking face a little like Ms. Smirt's, but younger. Her husband, on the other hand, was built like a professional wrestler.

"I'm Sabrina," Sabrina said, grabbing her suitcase from next to Ms. Smirt's desk. It seemed it hadn't moved since they got back from staying with Mary and Laura.

Ms. Smirt smiled tightly and pushed them out the door of her office. The girls followed the Johnstons out of the orphanage and into the car, where Mrs. Johnston, who it seemed did most of the talking, proceeded to explain things to them.

She said, "We already have two boys, they're twins, Freddy and Gerry. You'll like them. They're going to be professional boxers someday, just like their daddy!" She smiled adoringly at her husband. "They're already members of their school's wrestling team. They have a competition coming up, so we thought you two could help them train some!"

"Help them how?" Sabrina asked warily. She didn't like the sound of this.

"You'd be their partners, of course. They can't fight each other, they're too well matched, and they already know each other's fighting styles so well, it wouldn't help them improve at all. So we need new partners for their extra hours at home." Mrs. Johnston flashed the girls a very white smile. "Now, we've been told that you two have a habit of getting into trouble, so we're going to have to make sure you don't run away. Mr. Johnston has already made arrangements with the local police force- he has a long history with them, he's so well connected- and you two will be good girls, right?"

"Depends," Sabrina said, not making any promises. "What does good mean?"

"Let the boys fight you, don't break out of your handcuffs, do occasional chores, speak only when spoken to, wear the clothes I give you..."

Mrs. Johnston continued like that for some time, but Sabrina tuned her out. She wanted to make an inventory of what was in her suitcase. It felt heavier than before. She opened it up and saw a T-shirt, sized extra large, that she didn't recognize. She unfolded it, seeing that it said something about Bermuda. Keatons, most likely. But that wasn't all. There was also a small, basic set of lock-picking items, and a note.

_Sabrina-_

_You're going away again. This is from Chris. He asked me to give it to you in case he doesn't come back. Sorry I've been in such a bad mood recently, I'll try to be better if and when you come back. I was upset about Chris, and well, when I heard what your last foster dad did to you, I wanted to hurt him back. Jason was worse, though. He was all for finding him and killing him. He really likes you, you know._

_Hope you don't have to see me again for a long time (because this foster family is great)_

_Dare_

That note almost made what Mrs. Johnston had said about handcuffs and silence worth it. Almost.

When they reached the house, Mrs. Johnston introduced them to Freddy and Gerry, two boys who looked like miniatures of their father with more hair, and talked about the same amount. She then showed the girls their room, which was a study. It had been set up with two mattresses on the floor next to a radiator. There were two pairs of handcuffs attached to the radiator, within easy distance of the mattresses. They hadn't even bothered to clean out the study.

Next they stopped by the school to arrange to have Sabrina and Daphne enrolled. This involved placement tests, which the girls passed with flying colors, teacher meetings, and the eventual decision that the girls should be put in the gifted classes.

After school, Mrs. Johnson too the girls shopping. She bought them several sets of matching, expensive, fashion-model appropriate clothes that Sabrina hated and Daphne loved but said she'd be afraid to wear when Mrs. Johnson asked. Then they were informed that Mrs. Johnson, while she loved her sons, had always wanted a little girl.

_Perfect,_ Sabrina thought._ I'm living with a lady who's going to use us as dress-up dolls in her fantasy to have daughters._

After dinner, where Sabrina ate very slowly because she was afraid she'd get food on the very expensive clothes Mrs. Johnson had dressed her in, Mr. Johnson beckoned for the girls to follow, led them into their 'bedroom,' and locked them in their beds.

"We don't want you to run away!" Mrs. Johnson said cheerily. "We know you'll be happy here in time, but just in case..."

As she walked away, Freddy and Gerry stuck their tongues out at the girls, screwing their faces up. Mr. Johnson smirked at them, then led the boys to bed.

_Happy here, my foot. First chance I get, I'm running for it._ Sabrina thought to herself, settling down for a long, uncomfortable night.

* * *

The next day, Sabrina awoke with a crick in her neck from the position she'd been forced to sleep in. She decided that as soon as she was unlocked, she'd move her mattress so that her arm was more comfortable. She was not going to sleep like that every night until the Johnsons got complacent and decided she wasn't going to run away.

It took a week and a half for that to happen. A completely awful week and a half. After Sabrina refused to wear one particularly frilly princess-y dress, Mrs. Johnson decided that Daphne was too small to help the boys practice, which effectively made the beatings that much worse for Sabrina. At least she didn't have to hide the bruises this time, though. Daphne didn't particularly like being turned into a fantasy daughter, but she played her part well, for which Sabrina was glad. It was safer that way- Daphne would be the cute daughter Mrs. Johnson had never had, and she wouldn't get hurt. Sabrina, however, spent all her time with the boys. She was either helping them with their schoolwork or their wrestling, always with Mr. Johnson silently watching, making sure she didn't pull anything funny. At school the girls were matching frilled and bowed prissy-looking things, and didn't have many friends because they weren't actually prissy but looked like they were.

It was the day the parents left them home alone that Sabrina knew they were trusted. She took the opportunity. She used the lock picks to take the handcuffs off the radiator, because she figured they'd be useful someday, and then she had Daphne take their stuff outside and wait there for her. Then she went back inside, because the boys were calling her.

She'd been letting them beat her up most days, barely fighting back, in preparation. This way they wouldn't be expecting anything. She'd been watching their fighting styles, making sure she knew exactly what they wouldn't expect. So today when she entered the ring and they told her it would be two against one, them versus her, she wasn't surprised, but she was ready. When they started in on her, she pulled the most illegal wrestling moves possible, and she was out of the room in less than five minutes, leaving a groaning pair of hulking boys behind her.

They ran back to the orphanage that time. Sabrina figured that was the best idea. For one thing, Ms. Smirt had found them last time they'd run away somewhere else. Also, they didn't have anywhere else _to_ run. So they snuck back into the orphanage during the community service hour (when the place was practically abandoned), and the girls figured out what to get out of their bags, because they hadn't had a chance to do so the last two times, having gone directly to the basement. Then Sabrina put their bags in the attic and the girls snuck back into the dormitory just in time to meet up with the other kids.

It took Ms. Smirt a day to find out where they were. Until then, Sabrina and Daphne went about like they belonged there, and spent their spare time laughing about what Ms. Smirt hadn't noticed. But when she _did_ call them down to the office, they received a gloomy week's worth of punishment in the basement. They spent it scrounging for useful things. They built themselves a fort of sorts in one corner, and were about as comfortable as they would have been upstairs.

By the time they emerged from the depths, it was October seventeenth, as the Halloween countdown in the cafeteria proclaimed. Halloween was Ms. Smirt's favorite holiday, a fact that Dare found quite ironic, as her nickname was 'the witch.' Dare was in a much better mood because Chris was back. That combined with Ms. Smirt's almost-good mood made the loners downright cheerful.

The only thing that marred the two weeks heading towards Halloween was Michelson and his cronies. They had seen the mood the loners were in and were determined to squelch it. They'd always been mad that the loners weren't afraid of them, and the fact that someone else was in a good mood made them extremely angry, so they did whatever they could to get under their skins. They pinched in the hallways, stole people's things, messed up schoolwork, lied to get them in trouble, tripped people, dropped things down shirts, put things in their beds, pranking them in any way possible.

Sabrina hated it, and vowed to herself that if she met one more evil prankster, she would make him regret every prank he ever played. Now, pranking people who _were_ evil, that was something entirely different, especially if they'd started it, as Dare hastened to point out when Sabrina told her her vow. She'd agreed, and they'd all attacked back with gusto, but in much less severity. They could put up with pranks, as long as they was nothing serious, even if it was annoyting

Things drew to a head two days before Halloween. Sabrina had been walking to her next class, and she heard yelling in the hallway. When she found the source of the noise, she wasn't particularly surprised to see Michelson messing with someone, as usual. What _was _surprising was that he was doing it so obviously, dangling the floppy rabbit- in. The. Air.

Sabrina stopped. She stared. Then she glared.

It was Daphne's rabbit.

Michelson and his thugs were laughing and tossing the rabbit to each other in a cruel game of monkey-in-the-middle, as Daphne tried desperately to rescue her precious toy.

"Give her the rabbit back," Sabrina said, surprising herself at how calm her voice was.

"Why should I?" Michelson asked, smirking.

"I'll arm wrestle you for it," Sabrina said, cocking an eyebrow as he hesitated. "Or are you too chicken?"

"I ain't no chicken!" Michelson shouted. "There's a tournament every year two days after Halloween. You start at the bottom and work your way up. I win, I keep the bunny-"

"I win, you and your retards give it back and stop bugging us," Sabrina interrupted.

Michelson raised an eyebrow as the crowd that had gathered muttered to themselves. Sabrina wished she could raise one eyebrow like that.

"Upping the stakes a little, huh?" he asked.

"Stop stalling," Sabrina said. "I've got a class to get to."

"Fine, then," Michelson said. "But you got to get to the top of the tournament first."

"Oh you bet I'll be there," Sabrina said. "See you in four days."


	10. The Good Times

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

Halloween was the happiest time Sabrina had had since her parents had disappeared. Ms. Smirt walked around humming to herself, and she even broke down and let the kids go trick-or-treating. They kids, for the most part, gorged themselves on candy, partly because it was the only time they ever got any, but mostly because the adults were rumored to steal it the next day.

Ms. Smirt's good mood lasted through the first day after Halloween, so the orphanage residents spent a lazy Sunday sitting around, enjoying themselves for once. It was even a pretty nice day. Most people just basked in the weak sunshine.

Except for Sabrina. She was practicing, same as she had been doing since she'd heard about the arm wrestling competition. Michelson was bound to be one of the top guys, and the stronger she was, the better chance she had of making it up to beat him. She'd successfully beaten Daphne, Dare, Jason, and, once word got around the playground what she was doing, a bunch of the other loners who didn't feel like participating in the actual competition but wanted a challenge, and finally, Chris, one of the strongest boys in the loner crew.

Once she'd beaten everyone who was willing to go against her, Sabrina sat back and watched the others go at it. It was almost entirely loners on the playground, though there were a few scavengers, because it was bitingly cold out, despite the sunshine. Dare and Chris were taking turns pushing each other on the one swing strong enough to hold their weight. Daphne was on the only other one that wasn't broken. A few people were attempting to play basketball with a half-flat ball and that basketless hoop, but they looked to be enjoying themselves. Some of the smaller kids were pushing each other for the next spot on the slide, and the other kids were just hanging out.

"Hey," Jason said, having left the basketball game to talk to her. "You look different."

Sabrina shrugged. "I'm... happy, I guess."

"That's what it is," Jason said, sliding down the building wall to sit next to her. "Why?"

"We have the day off, there's candy in my bedroom, everyone I care about in this crudhole place is here, it's a pretty day, and you guys aren't leaving for another few weeks." Sabrina smiled for a second. That was actually a pretty satisfactory list.

"A few weeks that'll go by really fast," Jason said, his own smile faltering a bit. "I'm going to miss you."

Sabrina gave him a half smile. "I'll miss you, too. You're probably the best friend I've ever had."

"Same here," Jason slipped his hand into hers. He looked into her eyes and said softly, "But I'd kind of like to be... more than friends, if it's okay with you."

Sabrina looked down at their hands, then back up at him, still wearing that sad half-smile. "You're a great guy, Jason. I-"

The dinner bell rang loudly directly above their heads, cutting her off. Faces turning red, the duo untangled their fingers and headed into the building.

* * *

The next day the normal awful routine resumed. Sabrina was partly glad that she was on breakfast duty and didn't have a chance to talk with Jason, but also kind of sad. Was this what it was like when you liked someone as a grownup? A confusing mix of not being sure what you wanted, but still wanting to make them happy? If it was, she was pretty sure she'd rather go back to being Daphne's age, when liking someone meant terrorizing them.

Sabrina learned that the rumors of chocolate-stealing teachers were true, because all but three kids lost their candy that day. Ms. Smirt was seen forcing teachers (they were below her on the totem pole) to empty their pockets and turn over candy to her, but the candy didn't go back to it's original owners. A steadily darkening brown ring formed around Ms. Smirt's mouth as the day wore on.

"I can't believe she's still skinny," Dare muttered on their way to the wreck room after community service. Ms. Smirt had just popped a mars bar into her mouth.

"Well, it _is_ the only time she really eats anything all year," Chris pointed out, swinging their clasped hands as he walked next to Dare.

Sabrina laughed. "Yeah, she has to eat the same stuff we do. You'd think that'd make her want to make it better, but _no_-" She stopped, gulping, as they reached the staircase that would take them to the wreck room. "I'm scared."

"Why?" Daphne asked. "You beat Chris, and he's really strong!"

"You'll be fine," Jason said as he smiled at her reassuringly. He reached forward, like he was going to pull her towards the stairs, but then he stopped and put his hand back down.

Sabrina blushed and looked down, remembering the 'incident,' as she was calling it, as she entered the wreck room. They still hadn't talked about what they were now, dating or just friends or... something else. And she didn't have to answer now because she had to run up the stairs and look at the big chart over the TV, the one that said who she was arm wrestling first.

The arm wrestling competition was a big annual contest run by the janitors, so it was very professional. Two pairs of wrestlers competed on the table at a time, and then the next four took their turn. It lasted about an hour, usually, and the winner got a pizza party for their table that night at dinner. Sabrina was one of the first to go, and she beat the scrawny boy she was paired with easily. It went the same with the second and third matches, but in between her competitions, she spent her time competing with boys who wanted to either restore their ego or, later, see if she was really as strong as she seemed, because she didn't look it, tiny stick of a girl that she was.

In her fourth round, she had some trouble. She was up against one of Michelson's cronies, and he kept yelling for him to beat her in the background, because then he'd win their bet by forfeit. She won, though, after a long, sweaty struggle, and continued for the next few rounds in peace. Finally, it was the last match, Michelson against Sabrina.

"Ready to lose?" Michelson drawled lazily.

"Ah...no," Sabrina said, feigning that she was as confident as he was, "_I've_ been practicing, Mr. Lazybones."

"You really think you can win?" one of the janitors asked.

"You see her against the other boys?" the second janitor replied, a little incredulous. "I want to play her after she's done with this match, see if she's really that strong."

"I will too, then," the first janitor replied, not to be bested by his comrade.

"Look, can we get started?" Sabrina asked. "I want to get this over with." She was also hoping for pizza for dinner, but she wasn't going to say that. It would seem overconfident.

"Right," the second janitor said. He looked at the clock on the wall, then said, "And... go!"

Sabrina braced her arm, but she wasn't prepared for Michelson's brute strength, and she gave a little, her arm jerking to the right a little. There was a muted gasp from the background, which she tried to ignore- she wasn't going down yet! It took a lot of strength to even get her arm back upright, but once she did, she held it there for a long time. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her palm felt slippery against the boy's. She trembled, but he did, too, causing the whole table to quake a little bit under them.

Finally, she could feel Michelson starting to weaken. She had more endurance than he did! Those four grueling days of nonstop practice had paid off. To the sound of Daphne's cheering, Sabrina put on the pressure, and she shoved his arm down to within and inch of the table with one sharp burst. He stopped her there, trembling harder as he tried to push her back up to where he'd be safe. She pushed back just as hard. She had gravity on her side, now.

They held there for a few minutes, and then Sabrina heard Jason's though the roaring crowd, shouting encouragement at her, giving her the final push she needed to slam Michelson's arm down on the flimsy card table, which almost collapsed.

The room, which had been loud before, exploded with noise so loud Sabrina was pretty sure that someone would come to check on it soon- she'd won.

Michelson tossed her the rabbit angrily, face burning as he stormed out of the room. Sabrina handed it to Daphne in a daze. Without quite realizing what was going on, she played the janitors, winning against them too, barely even looking at her partners. She felt like this must be a dream. There was no way she, a ten-year-old girl, had beaten every boy in the orphanage (practically). Even if she did understand more about leverage and how to hold on to just a little bit of extra strength so she could beat someone else at the last second.

She was led down to dinner by a crowd of loners, all of whom were screaming in her ears, shouting about how proud they were of her- even the ones she'd beaten. With a satisfied smile, Sabrina realized that she'd finally proved herself to these people.

And then there was pizza, and Jason was sitting on one side of her with his leg squeezed against hers, and Daphne was on her other side, and Dare and Chris were across the table, and for a short time, things were actually good.


	11. Ms Longdon

**AN~ This and the next chapter is where Sabrina's life really starts to go downhill.**

* * *

A week passed by, bringing them that much closer to Dare's birthday and the subsequent departure of the brother and sister. As it drew closer, Chris and Sabrina became more and more depressed, getting surly and mopey by turns. Dare, on the other hand, was keeping a countdown.

"Twenty days!" she announced one morning at breakfast, "Then we're out of here!"

"Whoopty-freakin'-do," Sabrina muttered under her breath. Chris nodded in agreement.

Jason looked up at her in concern and grabbed her hand under the table. "We'll make the most of it."

The two still hadn't finished the conversation they'd started the day after Halloween, but Jason kept giving Sabrina signs that he wanted to, and she didn't exactly turn him down. She kept telling herself she'd talk to him, that she was just waiting for the right moment. Until then, she'd just let his hand stay there, because it was comfortable, and it fit just right.

"I'm going to miss you guys," Daphne said sadly.

One of the teacher's pets came up to Sabrina and Daphne at that moment and tapped them on the shoulders. "Ms. Smirt wants to see you after school today. She said to bring your bags."

Sabrina watched him walk off and realized that she wasn't going to get a better time to talk with Jason, because she might not be back before he left. She stood up, still holding his hand, and pulled him towards the hallway. "Can I talk to you a minute?" she asked softly.

Dare watched them with a smile and winked at Jason, who blushed and glared at her, following Sabrina.

"What's up?" he asked, once they were in the empty hallway.

"I wanted to finish talking to you about- it." Sabrina was blushing fiercely. "And- it looks like we're leaving today again, and since I might not be back before you leave, it has to be now. I'm sort of regretting taking so long, but it took me a while to figure out what to say."

"...And?" Jason asked, when Sabrina didn't continue for a while.

She looked up at him with a slight, shy smile. "Yes."

"Really?" Jason asked, grinning at her.

She nodded, and then the two of them walked back into the room, swinging their clasped hands, to the delight of their friends and sisters. The rest of the school day flew by, Sabrina and Jason squeezing in every spare minute to be together, and then the time came for the sisters to go see Ms. Smirt.

Jason walked them down, and outside the office, he kissed Sabrina on the cheek. "'Bye, my beastly arm-wrestling champion," he whispered.

"'Bye," Sabrina whispered back as he walked off, touching her cheek.

Then she turned sadly to follow Daphne, who had oh-so-tactfully entered Ms. Smirt's office when Jason gave her a 'go-away' glare. Somehow she didn't think she'd see Jason or Dare again for a long time.

"_There _you are," Ms. Smirt said irrritably. "Thank goodness your new foster mother is late, too."

Sabrina made no response, sitting in one of the chairs next to Daphne. She left her hand on her cheek, because it now seemed entirely too special for Ms. Smirt to see.

"What?" Ms. Smirt asked suspiciously. "No comeback? What has gotten into you?"

"She's in love," Daphne said dreamily.

Sabrina just sighed.

"Well, then it's a good thing she's leaving," Ms. Smirt said tightly. "We can't have her getting involved. It'll only end badly, and then it will be even harder for me to place you."

Sabrina glanced at Ms. Smirt. For a minute, it had almost seemed like she cared.

Just then, their new foster mother walked into the room. She was a spacey-looking, older woman with a white three-inch perm, a saggy chest, and too much lipstick. "Are these my girls?" she asked in a wavering voice.

"Yes, Ms. Longdon," Ms. Smirt said. "They're Susan and Daria."

"Sabrina," Sabrina corrected, "And my sister Daphne."

"Oh, you're such sweet girls!" Ms. Longdon said cheerfully, heading for the door. "I know we'll have great fun together!"

Sabrina and Daphne looked at each other, shrugged, picked up their suitcases, and followed her out to the taxi that was waiting in the parking lot across the street. Sabrina wasn't sure how one sentence had convinced the woman they were sweet, but this lady at least didn't seem abusive.

On the way to Ms. Longdon's apartment, she jabbered about the building, explaining the size, the friendliness of the neighbors (even if their constant insistence that she couldn't take care of herself was annoying- but it had finally driven her to look into adoption, so that was a good thing- she'd get to stay in her home, and the girls would get a new one!), and so on.

"Now, you'll like the apartment," she was saying when Sabrina tuned back in, "But there is one thing. You can't use the toilet."

"Why not?" Daphne, who had been listening raptly, asked. "Is it broken? Our toilet broke once. We had to have the building super come fix it. You should look into that."

"No, it works just fine, or it did the last time I used it," Ms. Longdon said. "But that's been a long time. You see, my toilet's haunted."

In the silence that followed, the taxi pulled up next to an old, worn-down looking apartment building.

"Where do you... _go_, then?" Sabrina asked skeptically, getting out of the cab.

"My neighbor's been kind enough to let me borrow his bathroom," Ms. Longdon explained, leading them into the apartment.

"That's cool!" Daphne said as she bounced into the elevator. "I've never seen a ghost."

"That's because they're invisible," Ms. Longdon replied, pressing the button for floor seven. "but you can _sense_ them, do you know what I mean?"

"No," Sabrina said flatly, glancing at the man in the elevator with them.

The man nodded at her, whispering "I'm Mr. Blake, your next-door neighbor. Feel free to use my toilet, the old biddy swears someone drowned themselves in it and it would be disgraceful to use it. She's crazy as a loon, and I'm trying to get her sent to an old-folks home as soon as possible. I want my bathroom back."

Sabrina was soon to find out he was right about Ms. Longdon. The old woman was _full_ of odd quirks. But she and Daphne got along splendidly, and other than that, life was fine. Ms. Longdon wasn't abusive or nasty or a bad foster parent, and Sabrina would have been perfectly content to stay with her- if it wasn't for the awkwardness of having to bug Mr. Blake about the bathroom, and her ache to get back and say goodbye to Dare and Jason. As Dare's eighteenth birthday grew closer, Sabrina began helping Mr. Blake prove that Ms. Longdon was unable to take care of herself. Finally, two days before Dare's birthday, an assisted living facility came to see Ms. Longdon. They were a relatively good rest home that would still let her have the freedoms that had kept her from joining one earlier, but Sabrina still felt guilty for helping get her put there. Still, it was better than running away, and finally, on the Day of Dare's birthday, Sabrina found herself in a taxi with Ms. Smirt, heading back for the orphanage.


	12. Mr Drisco

**AN~ I kind of talked out my butt for most of the ferret stuff. All I know about them is that they smell bad.**

* * *

When she got back to the orphanage, Sabrina ran inside and up to Chris, who was standing in the hallway, looking very forlorn.

"Are they still here?" she asked anxiously, but she already knew the answer, and when Chris shook his head, it came as no surprise. She swallowed and looked down sadly. "I didn't even get to say goodbye."

"Are you all right?" Daphne asked, coming in the door herself and seeing her sister's expression

Sabrina shook her head, walking ahead faster and faster, until she was running, up to the dormitory. She had tried so hard to get back in time, and she'd just barely missed them, and now she'd probably never see them again, and it was so unfair, _life _was so unfair, that she almost took back her resolution not to cry anymore.

"Sabrina?" Daphne asked, walking into the room.

"Go away!" Sabrina half-shouted.

Daphne looked at her, shocked, and Sabrina was immediately sorry.

"I'm sorry," she said, "But I need some time alone. Go talk to Chris, all right? He's probably sad, too."

Daphne left, and Sabrina spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on her bed, shuddering with the tears she refused to let out.

Downstairs, Daphne and Chris were talking. Daphne explained to the other loners what had happened at their last foster home, and how she had been a little mad at Sabrina before, because that had been a _good_ foster home, but she wasn't mad anymore. How could she be angry when Sabrina was so sad? Chris laughed and tousled her hair, telling her she was a good kid. But Dare and Jason's departure was the beginning of the end for the loners, and soon after, the quieter, weaker loners started to trickle into other groups, or into permanent foster homes, or, for some of the juvie kids, back to their real homes, because Dare had been the heart and soul of the group, and without her, things started to fall apart.

It didn't help that it took Sabrina most of November to recover from the loss, and it was only by the first week of December that she started to really step into Dare's shoes as the bane of all authority figures in the building. Even then, she was changed. She was quieter, laughed less, didn't enjoy things as much. Daphne, as a result, was even louder and more chipper than before. After a few weeks of that, Ms. Smirt finally got fed up and decided it was time for them to go to another foster home.

And so it was that Sabrina and Daphne found themselves in Ms. Smirt's office yet again, facing Mr. Drisco, a single middle aged man with brown hair, beady eyes, and a twitching, pointy nose.

"Nice to meet you, kiddos," Mr. Drisco said. "You like ferrets?"

"Uhhhh..." Sabrina said. Then Ms. Smirt pinched her, _hard_. "Sure," she said. After all, it wasn't a _lie_, she'd never been around a ferret, so she didn't know whether she liked them or not.

"Good," Mr. Drisco said, his demeanor becoming much more cheerful. "Then you'll like my house. I'm a ferret farmer. You'll help me take care of them, right?"

"Of course!" Daphne said, seeing Ms. Smirt's fingers approaching her back.

They headed out to the cab. On the way there, the whole way to Mr. Drisco's apartment building, and all the way up to the top floor, Mr. Drisco raved about the ferrets. The girls learned more about the small critters than they'd ever wanted to know (not that Sabrina had been too interested in the first place). They learned that their fur was good for stuffing into pillows, weaving, and pretty much doing anything with; that they could be trained to do practically anything; that their milk tasted good; that they sold for a good price; that they were a thousand times better than dogs, whatever the landlord thought.

Sabrina sensed more than a little animosity there, and she wondered what Jason thought about ferrets, or dogs. She knew he liked cats best of all, but maybe he liked dogs, too. Sabrina liked dogs, and had always wanted one, but she wasn't about to say as much to Mr. Drisco. Instead, she asked him if he did anything other than farm ferrets.

"Yes, actually," Mr. Drisco said. "My landlord raised the rent, so now I wait tables at the restaurant down the street. We'll probably eat there a lot- I get a discount. But that's why I decided to adopt you. I needed someone to take care of my babies while I'm at work. You won't be able to go to school, of course, but that's all right. If things work out, you'll grow up to be ferret farmers, too, and you don't need to go to school to do that."

"Right..." Sabrina said. She got the feeling that this wasn't going to work out.

The feeling just got stronger when she went inside the apartment. There were ferrets crawling all over the place: in the tub, on the stove, through the beds, in and out of tubes that ran along the walls... everywhere!

"I keep my best ones here," Mr. Drisco explained, "And the average ones stay up on the roof. Your room is down the hall. Just tell Dorie to move when you get in there, she thinks that's her room."

"Dorie?" Daphne asked.

"The pregnant one," Mr. Drisco said. "That's why she's inside."

"So how do we take care of them?" Sabrina asked.

"Just fill up their food and water bowls, then play with them. They like attention."

"How _much_ attention?" Sabrina asked warily.

Mr. Drisco, smiled, picking up one of his 'babies.' "Pretty much constant. That's why you can't go to school." He kissed the ferret on the nose, then looked at his watch. "Now, I have to go to work, ta-ta!" He walked out the door with a smile.

That was when the real trouble started.

The ferrets swarmed the two girls. After a minute's terror and a long shriek, Sabrina started beating the animals back with her suitcase, shouting for Daphne to join her. They fought their way to their bedroom, where Sabrina pushed Daphne inside, giving the ferrets one last whack with her suitcase before she joined Daphne in the room, slamming the door behind her and leaning on it, panting.

"Um... Sabrina?" Daphne asked. She sounded worried.

Sabrina looked over at her sister warily. "What?"

"There's one in here," Daphne said, "And she looks scary."

Sabrina's eyes follwed her sister's pointing finger to the corner of the room, where she stared at the biggest ferret yet, a huge brown thing with nasty, sharp teeth, dripping saliva onto one of the two beds. The ferret snarled at them, and then it charged.

Sabrina jumped onto the other bed, dragging Daphne with her. The ferret snarled, climbing up the covers to get at them. Sabrina shoved the covers off the bed, burying the ferret. It immediately started thrashing around, shaking the mound, trying to find a way out. Sabrina shoved Daphne on top of the pile of blankets.

"Keep it from getting out!" she yelled, heading for her suitcase. She opened it, dumped it out, and raced back to Daphne, who had just been bitten through the blanket. "Get back on the bed, now!"

Daphne complied, and the ferret scrambled out through the hole she'd bitten in the blankets. Sabrina positioned the suitcase, then slammed it down on top of the ferret. The suitcase began to slide across the floor with scratchy noises, and corners of it lifted up off the floor. Sabrina sat down hard on the suitcase, eyes wild and hair messy as she resolutely set about ignoring the snarls and scrambling coming from underneath her.

"That wasn't very nice of you, pushing me on top of her," Daphne pouted, nursing her bitten arm.

"Sorry," Sabrina apologized. "I had to be fast, and one of us needed to stay there."

"You could have sent me for the suitcase," Daphne muttered, "Or at least _warned_ me."

"I said I'm sorry," Sabrina said. "But there wasn't time."

"It's okay," Daphne said, "But don't do it again." She smiled at her sister. "That was a close one."

"Right," Sabrina panted. "I _hate_ ferrets. With a burning passion."

"I think that was Delia, or whatever her name was," Daphne said. "She's pregnant. Animals get fierce when they're protecting their babies, even if they haven't been born yet."

"I don't really care right now," Sabrina said. "See if you can find something heavy, will you? I don't want her getting out, and I can't sit her forever."

Daphne searched the room, coming up with a large book of ferret breeds after several minutes. "Does this work?"

"Yeah," Sabrina said, replacing herself with it, and getting up to fix the bed. "Thanks."

"How are we going to get out?" Daphne asked.

"We could... climb out the window and down the fire escape," Sabrina suggested.

"No, you don't have a suitcase," Daphne said. "Plus, I don't want to get locked in the basement again."

Sabrina sighed. "I guess we'll climb _up_ the fire escape, then. If we can get what's her face locked _in_ the suitcase, we could bring her out to the roof. He said that's where he keeps the rest of them."

They spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to accomplish that, then decided to slide one of the blankets under the suitcase to keep her in while they snapped it shut, dragging the blanket out again after they were done. Then they headed up to the roof, dragging the suitcase after them. They dumped the ferret out into the mesh pen that took up most of the roof, then went downstairs again to try and escape the ferrets that attacked them whenever they left the room.

Over the next two weeks, they discovered that the ferrets hated Daphne much more than Sabrina, taking every opportunity to chase her. They seemed to have a strange affinity for her arm, which gained a number of welts throughout the time they stayed there. Sabrina wondered if it had something to do with the pregnant one's first bite.

Sabrina spent most of her time helping Daphne fend off ferrets and trying not to think about Jason. But she finally snapped when, one day, she had left her shoes in the kitchen, and went to put them on to feed the outside ferrets. When she put her feet in the shoes, she felt a warm wetness and heard a loud _squelch_.

The ferrets had peed in her shoes.

That was the last straw.

"Daphne, we're leaving," Sabrina said, kicking her feet free. "Go pack, I have to wash my shoes. And my socks."

She stalked down to the laundry room fiercely in her bare feet, then decided leaving wasn't enough. Besides, they'd need a distraction to keep Mr. Drisco from looking for them. So she concocted a plan. Once her socks and shoes were dry, she headed upstairs, passing the apartment and going out onto the roof. Once there, she stalked over to the ferret's cage, glared at them, and opened the door. Then she headed back down to the apartment.

"Time to go," she told Daphne. "You ready?"

Daphne nodded. She didn't want to get stuck in the basement, but she'd had enough of ferrets, too, and these ones were _evil_. It was like a scene from a horror movie, with the ferrets following her, trained on her arm. Besides, Sabrina was her big sister, and she'd follow her anywhere- most times.

The two headed for the fire escape. Sabrina didn't close the bedroom door behind them, or the window. As they climbed down into the street, a wave of ferrets swarmed out the window and off the roof behind them, climbing all over the building. Sabrina watched them with some satisfaction, then turned away, not looking back.

"Where are we going?" Daphne asked.

"No idea," Sabrina said grimly. "All I know is, we're not going to the orphanage."

"Ms. Smirt's probably going to find us again," Daphne pointed out.

"I know," Sabrina said.

Daphne glanced at Sabrina. "You know we're just going to get punished worse."

"I don't care anymore, Daffy," Sabrina said. "I'm sick and tired of stupid, or crazy, or just plain evil grown-ups trying to control my life. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of me, _and_ you. We don't need them, and-"

"And what?" a cruel, cold voice said from behind them.


	13. Christmas

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

The girls turned around after hearing the question, only to see Ms. Smirt standing behind them, hands on her bony hips.

"Oops," Daphne muttered.

"So... how long have you been standing there?" Sabrina asked.

"About five seconds," Ms. Smirt said. "I was coming to take you back to the orphanage. Your foster father has been negligent."

"What does negligent mean?" Daphne asked Sabrina.

"He didn't take good care of us," Sabrina said. "And I know that, but what were you calling him out on? The torture by ferret, or the no-school thing?"

"School," Ms. Smirt said.

"I figured," Sabrina said. "Are we going back to the basement?"

"Yes," Ms. Smirt said irritably. "_Five_ days this time."

Five days of monotonous, repetitive gloom later, the girls emerged, only to be informed that it was December twenty-third- two days before Christmas. Daphne's class was celebrating by making gifts for all their friends, but no one above third grade was given that privilege, and Sabrina found herself faced with a Christmas break full of homework and empty of presents for Daphne, neither of which were happy prospects.

She searched the entire orphanage for a present for Daphne, but she couldn't find anything that would work. Everything in the attic was owned, the stuff on the other floors wouldn't really be a surprise (Daphne would know she'd stolen it, having seen it) and was pretty boring to boot, and all the things in the basement were disgusting or broken, sometimes both. She even tried _making_ Daphne a present, but that didn't go so well. Arts and crafts had never been her strong suit. Nowhere she was allowed to go was there something she could give a six-year-old for Christmas.

That thought set the wheels in her brain spinning in a direction she wasn't sure anybody would approve of: what about the places she wasn't allowed to go?

So at midnight the next day, Sabrina climbed out of her cot, sneaking down the long dormitory hallway. She was going to get Daphne a present no matter what it took, she decided.

"Where are you going?" a voice asked from the shadows by the staircase as she left the room.

Sabrina jumped, searching the darkness for the speaker. "Who's there?"

Chris stepped into the light cast by the window. "Just me."

"What are you doing up?" Sabrina accused.

"You had a funny look in your eyes this afternoon," Chris said. "Dare used to get the same one, so I put two and two together. I repeat, where are you going?"

Sabrina, whose eyes had grown sad at the mention of Dare, jutted her chin out stubbornly. "I'm getting Daphne a Christmas present."

"With what money?" Chris asked curiously.

Sabrina didn't answer. She looked very steadily at the window, at the dry ground outside it, and very purposefully away from Chris.

Chris sighed. "Don't, Sabrina. You'll ruin your life, and it's not worth it. If Smirt catches you, you'll be in the basement for Christmas, and then what will Daphne think? Plus, it's too cold to go out, and barely any place will be open on Christmas eve. And if a store owner catches you, it'll be worse than anything Smirt would give you for just sneaking out."

"I'm _going_ to get Daphne a Chrstmas present," Sabrina said stubbornly.

"I can't stop you, can I?" Chris sighed, shaking his head. "You're determined to make this mistake?"

Sabrina nodded.

Chris laughed. "Just like Dare. She trained you well."

"Thanks," Sabrina said, a little sad.

"Here," Chris said, rummaging in his pocket. "At least take this. I won't have you make my mistakes." He handed her a twenty dollar bill.

Sabrina blinked at it. "I can't take this! Where'd you get it, anyway?"

"I've been saving it since I got here," Chris said, shoving the bill into her hands. "And you can so take it. Think of it as my Christmas present to you and Daphne. There's a Hindu place two blocks over that should still be open. Good luck."

"Thanks, Chris," Sabrina smiled at him, running as quietly as possible down the stairs.

An hour and a half later, Sabrina returned with a small container of Barbie lip gloss for Daphne, two cheap Christmas cards with pictures of penguins on them, a small roll of equally cheap wrapping paper, two chocolate bars, and five dollars twenty-two cents of change. She wrapped the gifts in the paper once she returned, stuck the lip gloss under Daphne's pillow where it wouldn't get stolen, and snuck into boys' dormitory to put Chris's gift under his pillow.

She'd reached his bed and was about to slide the gift under his head, when his eyes opened.

"You just can't seem to stop trying to get into trouble, can you?" he asked, grabbing her arm.

"I know, I know," Sabrina said, trying to shake him off, "But Smirt won't come in here, either, and I wanted to give you a Christmas present." She lifted the package. "It's your money, after all."

"Guess I can't complain," Chris smiled wryly. "I wish you'd stop _looking_ for trouble, though. I promised Dare I'd take care of you, at least until I get out of here."

"When do you get to go, anyway?" Sabrina asked, handing him the present.

Chris took it. "Do I open it now? I'm free to go in January, if I'm well behaved."

"And then there'll only be about five of us left, and most of them going soon, too," Sabrina said sadly. "Go ahead, open it."

Chris did so, smiling at the sight of the almond chocolate bar. "My favorite. How'd you know?"

"I guessed," Sabrina said. "And Dare might have said something, too."

Chris broke off a piece and offered it to Sabrina, who declined.

"You're losing a lot in a short time, aren't you?" he asked.

"No more than anyone else here," Sabrina said stoically. "And I have Daphne."

"But you're a lot younger than most of us," Chris said. He looked at her closely and sighed. "I'm just trying to tell you that it's all right to be upset, Sabrina."

"I can't be," Sabrina said. "I have to take care of Daphne." She walked towards the boys' dorm door. "Merry Christmas, Chris."

"Merry Christmas, Sabrina," Chris said sadly, chewing his chocolate bar.

A few hours later, Sabrina woke to Ms. Smirt shaking her shoulder.

"Merry Christmas to you, too," she muttered sleepily, rolling over away from her caseworker.

"Get up, Suzy," Ms. Smirt said. "I have a new foster home for you and your sister, and your foster father wants you at his house before his wife wakes up."


	14. The Hendersons

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

Mr. Henderson's wife was from a rich family, and used to maid service. Mr. Henderson was neither of these things. This caused quite a few problems in their household, and Mrs. Henderson had complained for years about how horrible it was that she had to _cook _and _clean_ herself. Another issue Mrs. Henderson had with her life was that she couldn't have a child. She had wanted one- or more- for years, and they had tried, but nothing had come of it. Mr. Henderson had decided that he could solve three problems at once: his wife's repeated complaints about the fact that they didn't have maid service; their lack of children; and the ever-present problem of what to give the woman who already owned everything she could ever want. And to top all that off, he'd get paid for taking care of these kids!

He had explained this to Sabrina and Daphne on the ride to his house, and they had dutifully gotten dressed in Christmas-themed outfits, put large bows on their heads, and given Mrs. Henderson large, fake smiles from under the tree when she emerged from her bedroom. No use starting off on too bad a footing, after all.

She'd been quite pleased with her presents, particularly with Sabrina. She said that she was a very pretty little girl, the spitting image of her 'mother,' who would make a wonderful daughter. When she discovered that Sabrina had taken care of her sister for a week on her own, running the whole house, she was even happier, and declared that Sabrina was the perfect girl, and hadn't Mr. Henderson given the _best _present? Poor Daphne watched this from the sidelines, and Sabrina did her best to include her. In response to Sabrina's attempts, Mr. Henderson said she'd be all right, once she slimmed down a bit. At that, Daphne turned bright red, and Sabrina put an arm around her and glared at Mr. Henderson. She spent the rest of the day reassuring Daphne that she wasn't fat, and Mr. Henderson- excuse her- _daddy_- was a mean, nasty man who had no idea what he was talking about.

The next day, Mrs. Henderson took the girls to a seamstress to have cute little maid's outfits made up for them. The dresses were black, with puffy sleeves and skirts that flared out and ended in a lacy white frill around their knees. The aprons and mob caps were white and old fashioned, also trimmed with lace. Daphne thought they were 'spiffarooney,' but Sabrina found them uncomfortable and hard to move in, even with the added fluffy, lace-covered panties and thigh-length socks. Besides, who wore Mary-Janes anymore? Not Sabrina. She was a sneakers sort of person, thank you very much.

Their duties, according to Mrs. Henderson, would be to clean the apartment, do the laundry, help cook, and neaten the bedrooms. They'd have to go to school, and there would be outfits for that, too. They went to a department store after the seamstress to buy the girls each more fluffy underwear and knee-high socks, six pleated grey plaid skirts, three black-and-gray argyle blouses, six white button-down shirts of varying sleeve lengths, gray fitted coats with thin lapels, gloves and a hat, sneakers (sort of), a pair of shorts, and a T-shirt. All the clothes were matching, uniform, and _boring_. Sabrina asked if there would be anything colorful, and Mrs. Henderson said, yes, they would have to have a church outfit for Sundays.

This meant a trip to yet _another _department store, where the girls were bought stockings, nicer shoes, and matching green dresses. Sabrina was of the opinion that they were being transformed into twins, which was kind of ironic, considering Daphne's stout, dark figure, versus Sabrina's thin build that she considered gangly, but Mrs. Henderson described as 'willowy,' her pale skin, and her blonde hair.

Finally, after buying a pair of (no surprise) matching lacy nightgowns, Mrs. Henderson told the cabbie to take them back to the apartment, and Sabrina was allowed to collapse on the bed of their pristine white bedroom. They went to bed early in preparation for tomorrow, when she and Daphne would start their maid duties.

* * *

Being a maid wasn't so bad, compared with some of the girl's other foster homes, and with the horrible experience of _shopping_ from their first day with the Hendersons. At first they'd been expected to cook, too, but after the mess they made of the cod flambe, Mrs. Henderson decided to cook herself, and the girls just had to clean. They spent their winter break dusting, mopping, sweeping, and pondering the eternal mystery of how a house could be so full of dirt when barely anyone entered or left it. Sabrina thought that this place, aside from all the hard work and Mr. Henderson's nastiness, wasn't that bad. In a small part of her brain, Sabrina almost admitted that she enjoyed the attention she got from being fussed over by Mrs. Henderson, and being the favorite child (her parents had worked hard to hide it, but it was obvious that Daphne was their darling). They might even have stayed there, if it wasn't for school.

* * *

On January second, schools across the state opened their doors to embrace children and immerse them in a flood of knowledge and new experiences. For most children, these experiences were things like learning a new game in gym class, or discovering a computer program that let them design buildings. For Sabrina, the main experience of the day was being ridiculed for not only being the new girl, but being a new girl dressed in completely ridiculous, uncool, and not-worn-by-anyone-else clothing. The only thing she learned was that kids on the upper east side of Manhattan were even nastier than kids back in her own school district.

Daphne fared no better, and at school, they sat alone in the cafeteria commiserating and deciding that, though Mrs. Henderson was nice, the school was the last straw, and they couldn't stay in that place any longer. So they concocted The Plan.

* * *

The Plan consisted of secreting their suitcases into their lockers and adding their other possessions to them one by one, until all their things were in the school. Daphne wanted to take the clothes, but Sabrina said no. The clothes were horrible, and besides, Mrs. Henderson might suspect something if she noticed that all their clothes had disappeared.

It would probably have been smarter to approach Mrs. Henderson or someone at school and mention that they were having difficulties fitting in, but when Sabrina had sent out tentative feelers in these directions, she'd met with two responses: First, 'this is normal, things will improve over time.' Second was 'It's because you don't belong here; this school requires a certain sense of _class_ that two orphans couldn't possibly be expected to have.' So help from adults had been shot down- just like always.

Once all their things were in the school, the girls just... didn't go home. This way, with Mrs. Henderson on a trip somewhere and Mr. Henderson spending all his time in his office, the girls could continue going to school for some time, then just disappear. Besides, if they _lived_ in the school, they could pull all sorts of nasty tricks on the kids who'd been mean to them. Sabrina decided to put her no-pranks rule aside for just this little while. Even Daphne, who was generally too fond of people to try anything like that, thought these snobs deserved it.

The Plan worked beautifully. By the time Mrs. Henderson got home, they'd stopped going to classes altogether, just loitering around the school and doing nasty things to the bullies who'd made their first week miserable. They got plenty of food, since lunches were provided free with tuition for the school, and the gym showers were nicer than the showers at the orphanage. It was quite the life, until the announcement went around the school that anyone who'd seen Sabrina or Daphne Grimm-Henderson should report it to the office, or better yet, the police, because they'd disappeared from their home and were being searched for, and Mrs. Henderson was frantic.

Sabrina spent a miserable night alternating between being worried that she'd be caught and feeling guilty for running off on Mrs. Henderson. She wondered if that was a rational feeling or if she was just being silly, and then decided that, if nobody discovered them within a week, she'd turn herself in. She needn't have made that decision.

* * *

The next morning, one of the girls came into school early and caught Sabrina and Daphne brushing their teeth in the bathroom. She screamed, drawing the attention of the janitor, who called the office, who sent them to the principle, who called the police, who alerted Mrs. Henderson. Within half an hour, the fiasco was over, and the girls were in the police station, waiting to be picked up by Ms. Smirt.

When the girls explained why they'd run away, Mrs. Henderson started crying, wrapped both girls in tight, bony hugs, and was ready to take them back to her house right that second and get them transferred to another school, but Mr. Henderson declared that they'd been horrible children, and should go back to where they came from, and he promised Mrs. Henderson that she could pick out some _new _children soon. She kept crying and didn't let go of the girls, but she agreed eventually. Sabrina wasn't too surprised.

And that was the end of that.


	15. Flashbacks

**AN~ Edited. Made a LOT longer.  
**

* * *

In the taxi with Ms. Smirt on the way back to the orphanage, Sabrina sat by the window, her head leaning against the glass as she watched the world pass by. They passed by Sabrina and Daphne's neighborhood, and Sabrina was reminded of her early childhood, when she'd been happy. She'd avoided thinking about it before now, because it hurt to remember what it had been like when her parents loved her, but on the long ride back to the orphanage, the memories came flooding back, and this time she couldn't help it, maybe because of the emotions Mrs. Henderson had brought almost back to the surface in her.

**Flash.**

A cold day in October. Sabrina was in central park with her mom, laughing at something Daphne had done. Dad was looking around the statue of Hans Christian Anderson nervously, like he wanted to avoid someone. Sabrina ran over to him and dragged him back to her mother and Daphne, jabbering about how her sister had tried to tame a squirrel until Henry laughed, too.

**Flash.**

June. Mom was in the hospital, and Sabrina and Dad were buying her flowers, but they couldn't go to the store by the apartment, because the man behind the counter had said something that made Dad mad. Sabrina didn't care about that, she just wanted to see her baby sister, and she told Dad so. He shook his head and laughed a little, sadly.

When Mom heard about it, she was mad at Dad, and told him there was nothing wrong with the man, no matter _what_ he used to be. Dad looked like he wanted to argue, but he stopped when Sabrina held Daphne up towards him. They all cuddled around the baby and smiled, and then they were happy again.

**Flash.**

Sabrina didn't like having a baby sister anymore. Daphne stole all the attention, cried in the middle of the night, made messes, smelled bad, took up space in Sabrina's room (they were clearing out Dad's study to fit her in there, but until then the girls were sharing a room), and made Dad even more overprotective, and she didn't even _do_ anything, she just sat there and was bald. Grown-ups loved that, though.

She didn't see what was so great about babies.

**Flash.**

Dad got a new job. When Mom asked him what was wrong with the old one, he explained that his coworker had been 'one of the- _you_ know, _them_!' in a whisper, with a glance at Sabrina and Daphne. Sabrina pretended to be immersed in her homework, but Daphne just stared. Sabrina shook her head. That girl had _no_ sneaking skills. She was a good sneak, though. Someday she'd be the best sneak. The queen of the sneaks!

**Flash.**

Mom went to another society meeting, the one that she said needed more help than all the other ones combined, because they were both the least and most publicized minority in the world, and they were _very_ disorganized. She was going to make a speech for them eventually, once she got to know them all better. She said they needed to learn to help themselves, and she would give them the speech to show them how to do it.

**Flash.**

A recent memory. Mom was getting more and more distant, and she kept feeling her stomach and giving everyone weird looks, like she wasn't sure whether or not to tell them something. She stopped wearing her favorite shirt, and her loose shirts got a lot tighter. She was eating weird foods, too. Looking back, Sabrina thought maybe it was because she was getting ready to leave.

**Flash.**

Practically the same memory, but much earlier. Mom was eating funny things, and wearing her biggest clothes. Sabrina asked Dad if Mom was sick.

He smiled and said, "No, she's going to have a baby. You're going to be a big sister."

Sabrina wrinkled her nose. She wasn't sure she wanted to be a big sister. It might be nice to have someone to play with, but she didn't want to have to share her room. She didn't like to share anything, actually. On the other hand, Katrina from down the street had a little brother, and she got to boss him around, and he did some of the chores. Less chores was a good thing. She decided to wait until the baby came before she decided if she wanted one or not.

**Flash.**

There were a whole bunch of people who kept watching her, and a lot of them kept saying hello to her in random spots. They all seemed to know Mom. They were weird people, and they were either crazy beautiful or seriously ugly. Some of them, though, just looked... normal. She liked those ones the least. She liked to know who the weird people were. But it was nice that they were all friendly, she guessed.

**Flash.**

Mom was reading her a bedtime story, part of a book of fairy tales. Daphne loved the book. Sabrina thought it was cool, but if that had been a true story, it was kind of scary (she didn't mind. She liked to be scared- sometimes).

Dad came in, and he got mad. He yelled for a long time, and it started Mom and Dad's biggest fight ever. They were mad at each other for days, and the book disappeared. Sabrina looked for it, but she never found it. Mom told her stories anyway. She liked Mom's better than the ones in the book. They were a lot more realistic- sometimes even scarier, in a good way. Her least favorite were the Shakespeare ones. They were silly.

**Flash.**

A very early memory. Barely more than a few faces, actually, all looking down at her.

A boy's, smiling, laughing, blond and dirty. Eyes that were either blue or green, she wasn't sure, and an upturned nose. She liked that face.

A girl's, very pretty, but frowning, saying something about 'humans.' More blonde hair, but not curly like the boy's, straight and shiny.

A woman, who laughed and said that she looked just like her mother, but she had her father's coloring.

The boy again. He waggled a few fingers in her face and said what did it matter who she looked like, she was funny. They'd be good friends.

**Flash.**

It must have been a few weeks later. She remembered her mother's arms, warm and comfortable, and the blond boy playing with her. He was good at peekaboo, never showing up in the same place twice. There was a man's voice droning in the background. Sabrina didn't like the man. About halfway through the man's talk, the boy went away. She called for him to come back, and he did, but he was sad now.

'I have to go, Bri,' the boy said. 'But I promise we'll see each other again. 'Bye.'

'Bah-bah,' she said, waving.

He left, and she never saw him again. Another broken promise. That was her life. Broken promises and lies. Looking back, her memories of a happier time weren't really very happy.


	16. Mr Jones

**AN~ Edited.**

* * *

Sabrina was snapped out of her remembrances of times past by Ms. Smirt.

"You're not going back to the orphanage yet, girls," she said. "The children I was going to send to this home came down with the flu, and I believe this will be an even better punishment for you than the basement, since it obviously isn't keeping you from acting out."

"Who are we going to live with this time?" Sabrina asked warily.

"A retired circus man. He was going to continue working for them, but under charges- never proven- of thievery, he had to move to New York to escape the police. He and his pets- also retired from the circus- are looking for some companions."

"Is this going to be like Mr. Drisco?" Daphne asked.

Ms. Smirt smiled. "No, I assure you, Mr. Jones is _much_ different from Mr. Drisco"

Sabrina didn't trust Ms. Smirt's smile. It was menacing. In fact, if she were asked to define an evil grin, she'd get a picture of Ms. Smirt at that moment. But before she could do anything about it, they arrived at Mr. Jones' apartment building. It was a relatively small place, compared to the buildings around it, and very run-down. She didn't think she'd like to live there.

"Hello," a man said, opening the door of the cab. "Are these the girls?"

"Yes," Ms. Smirt said. "I apologize if they misbehave, the other two were... indisposed."

"That's fine," Mr. Jones- or at least, that's who Sabrina assumed it was Mr. Jones- said. "Nancy will soon put them to rights."

"Nancy?" Daphne asked, climbing out of the car.

"My pet," Mr. Jones explained. "Ta-ta, Ms. Smirt."

Sabrina looked Mr. Jones up and down. He was a big man, both heavyset and tall, balding, with broad shoulders and narrower hips, and small, beady eyes. He had some stretched out tattoos on his biceps. If she had to guess what he'd done in the circus, she'd have said he was the strong man.

"What exactly _is_ Nancy?" Sabrina asked warily, putting stealing, circus, pets, and Ms. Smirt's look together. "An elephant?"

Mr. Jones laughed. "No, of course not." Sabrina relaxed a little, but then he continued, "An elephant wouldn't fit in my apartment, and it's much too cold for them this far north. Nancy's a tiger."

"A what now?" Sabrina asked, staring.

"A Bengal tiger," Mr. Jones said cheerfully as he led the girls to the apartment building, as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "She was being horribly mistreated at the circus, so I took her with me when I retired, along with several other smaller animals.

"Did you steal them?" Daphne asked.

"I... _liberated_ them." Mr. Jones chose his words carefully, opening the door. "I'm the only one left in the building, so I bought it, and now my animals have the run of the place. Nancy will be here soon, so make sure you stay still and don't look her in the eye. If you do, she'll take it as a threat, and you don't want to threaten her. Also, whatever you do, don't run."

Sabrina guessed that, since he owned the building, he'd probably liberated some money along with the animals. Just what she needed. To live with a thief and a tiger. But just then, she heard a soft padding, and Nancy entered the room. Sabrina froze and looked very deliberately down at her feet. She went to push Daphne's head down, too, but her sister was already looking at the floor, and she pushed her hand off. Nancy sniffed at the two girls for a long time, then padded away. Sabrina got a good look at her on the way out- that cat was _huge_.

"I used to have some monkeys, but Nancy got hungry, so now I don't see them anymore," Mr. Jones said conversationally. "Pick any room to stay in. The kitchen is number five, bathroom's eight, and my room is ten. Don't stay in number thirteen, though. That's Nancy's.

Sabrina decided that she liked number seven. It was on the second floor, so it had a fire escape, and it faced the alley behind the building instead of the front. It wasn't too dusty, it had its own bathroom, and nothing seemed to use it much.

After putting their things in the room and carefully closing the door, the girls decided to explore the building. They started with the basement, finding a few scrawny looking mice and not much else. The rest of the building was much the same, empty except for a few terrified and underfed animals. As they explored, a bleak picture was painted for Sabrina. Nancy was terrorizing these animals, and would probably terrorize Sabrina and Daphne, too. She had to find the key for their room, otherwise she was pretty sure they'd be eaten in their sleep.

After a hectic search for a key ring, Sabrina finally found it in Mr. Jones' room. She grabbed the thing and raced upstairs, only to find the door open and Nancy inside, munching on Sabrina's pajamas. When the girls came in, Nancy looked up at them thoughtfully, spit out the remains of the clothing, then advanced slowly on the two girls, a frightening look in her eyes. Sabrina grabbed Daphne and shoved her towards the window and Daphne's suitcase, which was thankfully still shut. She grabbed her own and shut it, handing it to Daphne and keeping a watchful eye on Nancy.

"Go out on the fire escape," she whispered. "I'll distract her."

Daphne opened the window quietly and started to ease onto the platform. When Nancy saw what was happening, she flew into a frenzy, running at Daphne, jaws snapping. Sabrina grabbed the first thing she reached- a lamp- and threw it at Nancy, determined to keep her from getting to Daphne. The tactic worked, and Nancy turned to Sabrina. She stepped forward slowly. Sabrina stepped back.

Nancy sniffed Sabrina tentatively. A look of regognition appeared in her eyes, and she stalked forward.

Sabrina backed up slowly, heading for the doorway. She reached it seconds before Nancy, running out and slamming it shut. She tried to lock it, but Nancy reached the door before she could, and she was forced to take off running.

Sabrina was a sneak. She'd been the best in the orphanage at getting places without making noise or being seen; the one who got away with things the most. But that wouldn't help her now. Nancy was a tiger, and tigers relied on scent to find their prey. Sabrina had never learned how to mask her scent, and so she was reduced to a headlong dash through the building, running everywhere, slamming doors behind her when she could, hiding whenever possible, using every diversion technique she'd ever learned. She ran for hours, exhausted but somehow finding the strength to keep going. Seeing a tiger behind her, or hearing a growl, was a great incentive.

Finally, she arrived, panting, at the top floor. There was a window on one end of the T of the hallway, and a staircase to the roof on the other. Sabrina stood at the end of the T, where the hallway forked. Nancy was on the other end, stalking her way closer to Sabrina. She'd have one chance to pick an escape route and run for it. If Nancy guessed which one she would take, she'd never make it. On the other hand, if she pulled a fakeout, and the big cat tried to race her to her destination of choice, she could take the other route.

She made her choice. Sabrina started for the window.

Nancy exploded from her slow padding into speed, going in the same direction.

As soon as Nancy passed her, Sabrina, who hadn't been going full speed, skidded to a stop. She turned around and ran back for the roof. By the time Nancy realized what she'd done, it was too late, and Sabrina was shutting the door behind her, locking it and sighing at the satisfying click. She climbed slowly to the rooftop while the big cat yowled fiercely and scratched at the door behind her, furious.

Sabrina had won.


	17. Shelter

**AN~ And Sabrina continues to mature into the jerkazoid we all know and love. How were all y'all's Christmas Breaks and New Yearses(?)?**

* * *

"Sabrina?" Daphne's voice came from below.

Sabrina looked down over the side of the building she was lying on. Daphne was several stories down, still on the fire escape. "Yeah?"

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah." Sabrina panted. "Ju... just tired. How 'bout you?"

"I'm fine. I was so scared for you." Daphne said, climbing up the fire escape, suitcases in tow. "Your stuff isn't, though. Nancy ate all your clothes except for the underwear with the hole in it and one of your fuzzy socks. Everything else has drool all over it."

Sabrina rolled over and opened her suitcase. "Euuuuuuu..." She said, holding up her underwear and dropping it back into the suitcase. Then she flopped back down onto the rooftop.

"What are we going to do now?" Daphne asked.

Sabrina didn't answer right away. She just laid on the rooftop, enjoying the sun on her face in the cold January air, the fresh breeze on her sweat-soaked skin, and the interesting view of the skyscrapers towering above her head. There was nothing so nice as sitting on a New York City rooftop, in her opinion.

"I don't know yet. But we're not going back in there. Ever." Sabrina answered eventually. Then, seeing Daphne's expression, she added hurriedly, "But don't worry. I'll think of something."

"I could help think of something." Daphne offered.

Somehow, this upset Sabrina. It was partly the urge to not make Daphne do anything, because she shouldn't have to be going through this, but it was also a feeling that Daphne was- infringing on Sabrina's territory, in some way. She shook her head. Who CARED whose territory anything was? They just had to get out of this!

Still...

"Look, Daffy." Sabrina said. "It's really nice of you to offer, but- well, you just shouldn't- I mean, don't worry about it. If you've got any ideas, I'd be happy to hear them, but let ME worry about that. After all, I'm ten, and you're six." She smiled. "It's my job to protect you, not the other way around."

"Okay..." Daphne said. "But you said you didn't have any ideas."

"I didn't then." Sabrina said, "But I do now."

"What is it?" Daphne asked, after it was clear that Sabrina wasn't going to answer her.

"We're going to a homeless shelter!" Sabrina said.

"What?" Daphne asked, shocked.

"You got a better idea?" Sabrina asked defensively.

"Well... No." Daphne said. "But still- a HOMELESS SHELTER?"

"Hey, you pressured me!" Sabrina said. "Besides, my girl scout troop did a project with one that's nearby."

"HOW nearby?" Daphne asked.

"Not TOO nearby, but we passed by it on the way here, and I have money for bus fare." Sabrina said, pulling the few dollars out of her jeans pocket.

"Where'd you get that?" Daphne gasped.

"Chris gave it to me for Christmas." Sabrina said. "It's what I used to buy your Christmas present."

The two girls scampered down the fire escape and caught a bus uptown, getting out at the homeless shelter. They stayed there for some time before anyone noticed, because whenever someone who looked like they might send them back to the orphanage came along, Sabrina would find someone who either had a lot of kids, or someone who was slightly senile, and attatch herself and Daphne to that person. It wasn't the finest of accommodations in the homeless shelter, but they were fed, warm, and fairly happy. Sabrina would have been content to live there for some time, honestly. Daphne had other kids to play with, and she had adults to either model or NOT model herself after.

The system of attachment to another adult worked until mid-February, when one of the other children announced to her mother, "THIS IS DAPHNE! SHE AND HER SISTER ARE HIDING FROM THE ORPHANAGE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY'RE MEAN!"

The whole shelter turned to look at Sabrina and Daphne. Daphne shrank visibly, and Sabrina glared at her, then the shouter, while one of the adults in charge of the shelter came up and asked, "Is this true?"

"No." Sabrina said quickly. Too quickly.

"I see." The adult said. "Then would you mind pointing out your parents for me?"

"They're..." Sabrina thought. "Not here right now."

"And why aren't they here?"

"Because they're... ahm... What are they doing, Daphne?"

"I don't know!" Daphne said.

"I remember now!" Sabrina said. "They're looking for jobs!"

"Oh." The adult said. "When will they be back?"

"Ummm... five?" Sabrina said.

"I see." The adult raised an eyebrow. "Shall we wait for them in the office, then?"

"Let's not." Sabrina said hurriedly.

"Well, the other option is to call the orphanage and ask them if they have any records of you." The adult said, grabbing Sabrina and Daphne both by the arms.

Sabrina sighed in defeat. "Come on, Daphne, let's go get our bags."

The two girls went to pick up their suitcases. Daphne tried to start up a conversation a few times, but Sabrina completely ignored her. Finally, when she couldn't stand Daphne's pestering, she spoke up.

"Why'd you have to go and tell that kid?" She exploded. "If you hadn't, we could have stayed here! THIS is why I make the decisions instead of you! Because when YOU make decisions, they mess things up!"

Daphne stared at her, and didn't say anything. Sabrina sighed. It had felt good to get that off her chest, but the look on Daphne's face, and the- were those TEARS? They were!

"I'm sorry, Daphne!" Sabrina said. "But please, PLEASE, don't do that again. Don't tell anyone anything about us. All right?"

Daphne nodded and wiped her face, and together they went to wait for Ms. Smirt.


	18. Dwindle

**AN~ I'm listening to Boys Like Girls. Any fans out there?**

* * *

Sabrina and Daphne had spent a week in the basement after their most recent escapade. It had been an uncomfortable time for the two girls, because they were starting to realize things about each other that, for all that they'd lived in the same places for the past six years, they'd never known. They were also starting to realize that living like they were was changing them.

Sabrina was acting older than she had ever acted before, a kind of older that threatened to leave Daphne behind in the dust that was all that was left of their childhood. She was getting angry, too. Sure, she'd had temper problems before, it was sort of a family thing. Even Daphne could explode, although it was very, very rare. But now she had no way to get rid of the anger constructively, without sports, so she just held it in until she boiled over. She didn't trust Daphne anymore, either. Daphne wasn't sure if that would become a universal thing, but she knew for a fact that Sabrina didn't trust HER.

Daphne, on the other hand, compensated for Sabrina by maturing as little as possible outwardly. She WANTED to follow her sister into the realms of maturity, but she couldn't, so she made up for it by being happy all the time and keeping no secrets from anybody and worrying about Sabrina's temper.

The two girls were slowly realizing that they were as different as their hair colors, as different as night and day, as summer and winter, and they didn't like it. It was like realizing that your partner in crime, who you'd depended on for everything, was nothing like you thought they were, and not being sure you could depend on them after all.

So, needless to say, they were very happy when they were let out. Chris met them as soon as he could, with the unfortunate news that, due to one thing or another, the loners, who had composed about a sixth of the orphanage population, was now reduced to five people, including Chris, Sabrina and Daphne. And Chris was leaving in just a few days.

Those few days flew by in a haze of schoolwork, because Sabrina and Daphne were WAY behind, due to their recent series of foster homes, runaways, and punishments. They still weren't done by the time Chris was ready to leave, but since it was a Sunday, they were allowed to see him off.

"Bye." Daphne said, giving him a big hug.

"So, you know where you're going now?" Sabrina asked him.

Chris smiled ruefully. "Well, I talked to my dad, and he just remarried a lady with a few kids and big dog of her own, so he said there's not really any room for me there. And since I'm eighteen in a little while anyway, I figured I'd go look for Dare and Jason. Any messages?"

"All quiet on the western front!" One of the other remaining members of the loners, Tom, called from the staircase. "And if she's ever looking to break up with you, I'm available!"

"You're too young for her." The other loner, Becca, replied absently. "I miss them, and the orphanage's gotten a lot worse since they left."

"I love them." Daphne said quietly. "And they're the bestestest and I'm remembering everything Jason taught me!"

"The bestestest?" Chris asked.

Daphne nodded. "It's my new word."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "I... see. Anything to add, 'Brina?"

Sabrina, who had been silent until then, thought for a minute, then said, "Tell them- especially Jason- that things haven't been the same since they left."

"Anything else?" Chris asked.

Sabrina shook her head. "They'll know what I mean. Goodbye." She turned around and walked up to the dormitories.

"'Bye!" Tom called. "Tell Dare what I said!"

"I'll tell her the first part!" Chris said. "See ya! ...Or not."

"We will!" Becca called. "Eventually! 'Bye!"

"I'll miss you!" Daphne called. "And Sabrina will too, but she's too stubborn to say it!"

Chris laughed and walked out of sight, not turning around. Sabrina watched from the dormitory window, as yet another person she cared about left, never to be seen again, as far as she knew. Then she, too turned around, to practice sneaking. She needed to get better. Now.

As she left the building, she saw a funny man looking at her. He was short, older, and a little chubby, and he was most definitely staring at her. That was the third one this month!

And there had been more before. All of them just a little odd looking, slightly out of the ordinary. Was she just a magnet for weird people or something? An all of them just stared at her, some of them were with other people, and if they saw her, they whispered to each other, and made her feel like she had something in her hair or on her face. It was just not cool.

"Would you GO AWAY?" Sabrina yelled at the staring man. "What is so interesting about me WALKING?"

The man's eyes widened, and he scampered off towards Central Park, by Sabrina's best knowledge.

"And tell all the other stalkers to leave me alone too!" She called after him, satisfied. There was something enjoyable about yelling at him like that. She decided then that that was the way she'd vent her anger. Physical violence got one in SO much more trouble.

But it could still be a last resort.

When she got back to the orphanage, she felt much better. The other three noticed this, and they all started planning the next great prank for Ms. Smirt. Eggs in the bed was too good for her- but if they put ROTTEN eggs in her pillowcase- or if they put them under her BED- not just eggs!- all the leftovers from dinner!- PERFECT! Sabrina was to carry out the plan, of course, but Tom would be on lookout, and they'd all donate food. Nobody other than Daphne really ate much, anyway.

It would have ben amazing, if Ms. Smirt hadn't called Sabrina and Daphne down to the office right after dinner.


	19. Mr Won

**AN~ To cece, mrf8, Lara D, and gothicgal000: YOU ARE THE MOST AMZINGLY AWESOMESAUCETASTICESTS!!! I love you guys! I'm glad you nominated me, can you tell? If you want anything from me, in the way of either a one-shot, something added in this story, or an update for something else, I will do that. ASAP.**

**And I made up the address, don't go there looking for a homeless shelter.**

* * *

Sabrina glanced at Tom and Becca. "You could still do the prank, you know. She'll be distracted."

Tom grinned. "Great idea! Let's go, Becca dearest!"

Becca rolled her eyes. "I'm not your dearest. Come on."

Daphne grinned at the two of them, then bounced up, pulling Sabrina along behind her. "I wonder what's happening now." She said.

Sabrina shrugged, following more slowly. "I dunno. But I hope it's not another foster home. I could live forever without another one of those. I found out at the shelter that the state pays foster parents money to take care of kids. I betcha a bunch of those 'parents' we had were just in it for the check."

"Most likely." Ms. Smirt called from in her office. "But, since you have proven yourselves unworthy of a good home, you'll be going to them for the foreseeable future."

"Great." Sabrina said sarcastically, entering the office. "Is that why we're here now?"

"Quite." Ms. Smirt nodded. "He should be here shortly."

"Who's HE?" Daphne asked.

"Mr. Won." Ms. Smirt replied. "He owns a Korean restaurant in Queens, and says that the two of you would be a most valuable asset to his business."

"What's an asset?" Daphne asked Sabrina.

"It's something that improves or helps make something else better." Sabrina answered. "Hi, Mr. Won. Nice to meet you."

Mr. Won, a short Asian man with black hair and brown eyes, bowed to the girls. "Let's go, shall we?" He asked them.

"Uh... sure..." Sabrina said, following him and pulling Daphne along with her.

The bus ride to Mr. Won's apartment and restaurant was practically silent, with Mr. Won offering no conversation, and Sabrina and Daphne afraid to speak under his glare. Once they entered the small, shabby restaurant, Mr. Won handed them each a big net.

"What are these for?" Daphne asked, rolling her net around in her hand.

Sabrina didn't answer, but she had a guess. She'd heard the rumors about cheap Asian restaurant's meats. A few seconds later, her suspicions were confirmed.

"You go catch dogs. Bring them back here, and we'll make dinner." Mr. Won said.

Daphne stared at him in outrage. "That's- that's AWFUL!" She shouted.

Sabrina pulled Daphne away a little bit and whispered, "It is, but there's not really anything we can do about it."

"You don't want us to STAY here, do you?" Daphne asked.

Sabrina shook her head. "We'll get out of here. Follow my lead."

They returned to Mr. Won, and Sabrina, once she was close enough, stepped down hard on his foot. Daphne followed suit, and then the two proceeded to kick the man mercilessly. After a brief but brutal struggle, the two girls left the restaurant and Mr. Won, who was tied up in one of his own nets.

"See how you like it." Sabrina muttered to him as she closed the door behind her.

"Where are we going?" Daphne asked Sabrina, running to catch up with her as she walked quickly and purposefully ahead.

"Another homeless shelter." Sabrina said, handing Daphne a map without looking at her. "Look for nineteen hundred, seventy-third avenue, would you?"

"But we got kicked out of the last one." Daphne responded.

"Well, if you don't tell anybody about us, then maybe we won't get caught this time." Sabrina replied, scanning the buildings. "AH! Here it is!"

"Okay..." Daphne said, shrugging.

This time they spent over a month in the shelter without getting caught. They could have spent longer, but Ms. Smirt came to speak with Mr. Won about the girl's schooling, and she spent a long time and a lot of money searching for the two girls. When she finally found them, it was April seventh. Sabrina knew this because it was the ten month anniversary of the sisters Grimm's stay in the orphanage. Ten months of pure agony. She wondered just how much longer this would keep going.

They spent a week and a day in the orphanage after running away from Mr. Won, and then they spent the next two weeks after that trying to make up their schoolwork. It was taking all of their effort to just PASS, let alone get the grades most of the teachers expected of the students, and with so much work to do, they'd barely been able to say goodbye to Becca, who had been placed in a foster home of her own, and was, according to Tom, who had gotten a cell phone from somewhere, and would use it late at night to talk to the long-gone loners, very happy with her new place.

It was sad to know that there were only three of them left out of all the friends there had been. Also, there had been barely any newcomers to the orphanage recently, all who did come immediately falling to the bottom-feeder group, which meant that Sabrina and Tom spent most of their spare time playing pool or foosball while Daphne watched, scheming up new ways to torture Ms. Smirt.

It was such a long way to have fallen from what life at the orphanage had been once, it wasn't even remotely amusing, or funtasticles, as Daphne was saying recently.


	20. Harold Dink

**AN~ Some of my pool terms might be off, I haven't played in ages and my mom took my sister on an overnight trip to give her The Talk.**

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When the new boy showed up at the pool table, Sabrina's jaw almost dropped. She managed to keep it closed, just barely. NOBODY had even really recognized that the loners existed, now that there were so few of them, for MONTHS. Of course, being new, this kid might not know that.

"You know, if you want friends, this is the wrong place to be." Sabrina said, looking back down at the table. "'D'you go yet, Tom?"

"No." Tom replied, aiming and firing, ending in a scratch. "Damn."

"Watch it!" Sabrina snapped, nodding at Daphne. "Six-year-old in presence, remember?"

Tom glanced at Daphne. "Oops. Sorry, Daffy." Then he looked at the new boy. "Do you want something?"

The boy shrugged. "To hang out with you guys. You seem a lot cooler than the rest of them. And... well..." He glanced at Sabrina.

Tom snickered. "She's taken, buddy. What's your name?"

Sabrina, who had just finished scoring, looked up to study the new boy. He was skinny and freckled, with thin red hair. If he'd been looking at her the way Tom thought he was, he was screwed.

"Harold Dink." The boy said, directing his second comment at Tom. "Taken by you?"

"I'm Daphne, but you can call me Daffy." Daphne said. "And this is my big sister Sabrina."

Sabrina reached out a hand to shake Harold's. "That's Tom, and we're NOT together. He's madly in love with an eskimo."

"She's NOT an eskimo!" Tom protested. "And this is your mentor we're talking about!"

"Right." Sabrina said. "Your move, lover boy."

Tom glanced at the table, then made a face. "Da-rn. Why do you always win?"

"I haven't won yet." Sabrina pointed out. "You never know, I could miss the next- twenty turns and you could get something in."

"Next time, we're playing foosball." Tom said.

"She wins that one, too." Daphne commented. "And you can't, remember? Smirt confiscated the ball when you threw it at Michelson."

"I don't care." Tom muttered. "We can play with a pool ball."

Sabrina laughed. "We can play with the white one. You have a tendency to get that one where it belongs."

"Are you guys ALWAYS like this?" Harold asked.

"Usually." Daphne said. "Sometimes we're just quiet, though. Tom doesn't like that Sabrina's more manly than he is."

"I'm VERY manly!" Tom protested.

Sabrina snorted. "Right. Which is why I beat you at arm wrestling, and pool, and foosball, and-"

"All right!" Tom said. "So you're a total beast at every sport on the planet! It's not my fault you take steroids."

"Shut up and take your turn so I can win!" Sabrina smacked Tom, and the game resumed.

For the next few days, Harold became a regular part of the loner group. He wasn't that great a personality, even more of a tagger-on than Daphne had been at the beginning, because at least she had tried. He just sort of followed them around, and Tom gave him the nickname "Pettigrew." None of the others had any idea what Tom was talking about, and he declared them all uncultured thugs who needed to read more.

Then one day, Sabrina noticed something. Sometimes, Harold would just disappear mysteriously. She hadn't seen it before because he was so quiet, you barely knew he was there in the first place, but when she DID notice it, her radar went off. She smelled a rat.

She didn't tell the others, because it COULD have just been that he had explosive diarrhea or something equally embarrassing, but she decided to check it out. If it WAS nothing, then all was well, and her curiosity would be satisfied. If it WASN'T- well. THEN she would tell.

So she gave her excuses and followed him, ever so grateful for the snaking training she'd had in the past. She knew where all the loose boards were, where she could hide, what places would make you cough, and more. He didn't, so even if she couldn't see him, she could hear him.

He DID head in the direction of the bathroom, at first. But then, once he turned a corner, out of sight of Daphne and Tom, he slipped into an empty classroom. Except it wasn't empty. Michelson was in it.

"Fradazzamo." Sabrina muttered, borrowing one of Daphne's words. "I KNEW he didn't have diarrhea."

She stayed to listen to the conversation, just to make sure she wasn't making something up, but she didn't need to. It was exactly like she'd thought. Harold was spying on them and reporting back to Michelson, under threat of being beat up, but also, Michelson had gotten money from somewhere, and he was paying Harold off. He wanted this information for some master plan. Well, Sabrina wasn't going to let him get that far. No sir, not on her watch.

She ran back to Tom and Daphne, making it just before Harold turned the corner. She'd have to wait until he left again to tell the others what she'd heard. Then Harold would pay.

The next day, while Harold was doing makeup work for History, Sabrina told the others what was going on. Tom, when he heard, declared that the name Pettigrew was perfect. Sabrina and Daphne stared at him blankly, then Daphne went back to telling Sabrina just how evil this boy was, and how MEAN it was of him to do this.

Sabrina listened for a few minutes, then said, "Right. But what are we going to DO about it?"

Daphne shrugged. "Shun him forever?"

"Sounds good," Tom said, "But I think I have something better.

"Well?" Sabrina asked impatiently. "Spill!"

Tom held up a small bottle. "The bald janitor uses this. It's supposed to make hair grow in, but it doesn't work right, It makes it fall out. We can mix it with his shampoo!"

"I dunno..." Sabrina said. "I'm mad, sure, but you know how I feel about pranking people who aren't Smirt. I'd rather just pummel him and get it over with."

"But if we beat him up, then we'll get in trouble." Daphne said. "And you're REALLY mad, right? Can't you bend the rules, just once?"

Sabrina looked at Daphne and Tom, both of whom were giving her bambi eyes, then sighed. "Fine. But just this once."

Tom ran off to carry off his threat, and while Sabrina and Daphne were waiting for him, Ms. Smirt came up to them.

"Ah!" She said. "Just the orphans I was looking for. We've found you another home."


	21. The Crassaes

**AN~ This chapter is horribly written. Sorry about that. I should have edited, but I didn't, so struggle your way through it, I'll make it up to you in the next one.**

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In the car to her next foster home, Sabrina saw the date on the car's calendar, and she realized something. If that date was right, then she'd been eleven for over a month without realizing it.

"Um, Mr.- what did you say your name was?"

"It's Crassae." The man said. "But call me dad."

"Right." Sabrina said. "Is that the right date, 'dad?'"

"Yes it is, why?" Mr. Crassae said.

"Because that means I've been eleven for a month and a day without realizing it." Sabrina said, her eyes widening. "Shoot!"

"And I didn't even notice." Daphne said guiltily. "OR get you a present."

"It's all right." Sabrina said. "Maybe you can get me one here."

But it wasn't to be. Neither Mr. or Mrs. Crassae would lend Daphne any money. Of course, with MRS. Crassae, it was because she couldn't be trusted with it. She was absolutely insane, and not trusted alone. Mr. Crassae had adopted the two girls, actually, to watch his wife while he was away at work. He was a trucker who did New York to Los Angeles routes, and he figured that two kids would be cheaper than a baby sitter.

Sabrina and Daphne dealt with it for a while, but Sabrina was looking for a way to escape the whole time. It was just, with one of them at Mrs. Crassae's side at all times, it was hard to sneak away. Finally, Mr. Crassae and his mother in law, who visited occasionally, were home at the same time.

Sabrina grabbed the chance to leave the house.

"Dad!" She called.

Mr. Crassae turned around. "Yes?"

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"The grocery store." Mr. Crassae answered. "Why?"

"Can we come with you? Please?" Sabrina asked.

Mr. Crassae gave her a quizzical look. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I've been cooped up in this apartment for over a month, and it's stuffy and BORING. Food shopping would at least be a change of scenery." Sabrina explained, elbowing Daphne.

"Oh!" Daphne said, realizing what Sabrina was getting at. "Can I come, too?"

Mr. Crassae nodded. "Fine. Come on."

The two girls followed happily, Sabrina making the excuse that she had to go to the bathroom so that she could shove their luggage onto the fire escape. Then, when they were in the car, stopped at a red light, Mr. Crassae pulled out his cell phone, and Sabrina saw her moment.

Quick as a flash, she grabbed Daphne's arm, opened the car door, and RAN. It took Mr. Crassae a few moments to catch on, then he parked and ran after the two, but they were rushing madly ahead, barging through crowds, knocking over tables, making it as hard as possible for Mr. Crassae to follow them, but still being sure to remember how to get back to their stuff. Not that Sabrina had much left, after Nancy.

Eventually, they stopped turning things over, and they ducked into an alley to wait for Mr. Crassae to pass them. Once he did, gasping and clutching at his side, they snuck back to the apartment, reaching it by dusk. They waited until full dark to climb the fire escape and rescue their things, then spent the rest of the night wandering around the city, looking for the shelter Sabrina KNEW was there.

They had a few close calls that night, but Sabrina managed to sneak away or divert the attention of the threatening persons. Then, finally, around dawn, Sabrina found the shelter.

"Is this it?" Daphne asked blearily.

Sabrina nodded, then knocked on the door. They waited, holding their collective breath.

After some time, a woman answered the door. "Yes?"

"Can we stay here for a while?" Sabrina asked.

"Where are your parents?" The woman asked.

Sabrina pushed past her, saying, "Can that wait until we've slept for a while? We've been walking all night, and she's exhausted. I am, too, for-" She yawned. "For that matter."

The woman shook her head, then showed them to a place they could sleep.

The girls slept for hours, and when they woke up, refreshed, their good mood was quickly destroyed by the woman grilling them on the whereabouts of their guardians. The girls held out for a while, but finally, under temptation by chocolate cake, Daphne caved, and the woman wasted no time in calling the orphanage, while the girls spent an equally small amount of time eating the cake.

Once it was gone, Daphne asked, "Do you have any more food? All the stuff at our last place tasted like mothballs."

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Back at the orphanage, Ms. Smirt was NOT HAPPY. The girls spent a whopping two weeks in the basement, and Sabrina realized that it was already the middle of may. Another two months, and they'd have been in the orphanage for a year. That was not a happy thought.

Once their two weeks of gloom were over with and they returned to the outside world, Sabrina practically collapsed in hysterical laughter when she saw Harold Dink's head.

"It looks like he has mange!" She gasped after she regained control of herself. "Does he know who did it?"

"He has a guess." Tom said. "But no proof. Yet."

"I hope she doesn't catch us." Daphne said worriedly, glancing at the approaching form of Ms. Smirt.

"Me too." Sabrina said. "Did you find out what the mega plan was?"

"Found out, snitched, destroyed." Tom said, in a tone that suggested that it was absolutely to be expected that he did the dirty work while they went off and ran away again. "Not much else to do when you two are gone."

"Well, they'll be leaving again," Ms. Smirt said cruelly, "And you will pay for that little stunt with the Dink boy's head."


	22. Anniversary

**AN~ The rest of this story might not be as good as the beginning, I've sort of lost the spark with it. I just realized that when these books first came out, I was the same age as Sabrina. Now I feel old. **

**Fudging the length of this chapter...**

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As far as people went, the Harrisons didn't even make the top five worst that Sabrina and Daphne had lived with, but they were nowhere near the best, either. They expected the girls to clean out their pool, which was a huge in-the-ground thing that looked as if it hadn't been used in years. Of course, they weren't going to stand for that. Sabrina refused to even step within three feet of it, and Daphne had almost puked when she got close enough to smell it. So, of course, they left. They just walked right out of the Harrison's backyard without looking back, taking a large portion of their food with them.

...Only to be caught by the bio-hazard squad who were wisiting the Harrisons on request by a neighbor, who said their pool gunk was melting the toilet of the house next door. The bio-hazard squad took the girls straight back to the orphanage, and from there, Ms. Smirt sent them to the Donovans, after their standard two-weeks orphanage treatment.

The Donovans were actually fairly normal, aside from their obsessions with lima beans. Every meal they cooked had lima beans as the focus.

Lima bean breakfast cereal.

Lima bean sandwiches.

Lima bean salad.

Succotash.

Lima bean-and-spinach pie.

Turkey stuffed with lima beans.

Sabrina HATED lima beans. They were her least favorite food, and always had been. Daphne, on the other hand, was happy with any food, and since Mrs. Donovan was preparing for a lima bean cookoff festival, Daphne was happy to be her taster, so Sabrina stood it. There were other things she could eat.

But when the time for the festival came, and the girls heard that it would be three days of lima beans and nothing else, even Daphne was a little sickened. The two girls planned for a little while, then, once they were in the car on the way to the festival, they opened the door and ran out.

They stayed in a less-than-reputable homeless shelter in Queens for a few days, but one of the other members of the orphanage seemed a little too interested in Daphne, and Sabrina decided that loss of freedom for both of them was better than a loss of innocence for Daphne, so she arranged it so that one of the shelter workers would 'discover' that they were orphans.

Ms. Smirt decided that the traditional punishment for running away wasn't working, so she gave them the equivalent of K.P. duty for the foreseeable future, helping the janitors clean the dormitories whenever they weren't in a foster home. That turned out to be both a good and bad thing, good because Sabrina could spy on everyone and their things, which allowed her to make threats if anyone did anything to her, and because Daphne, who was becoming a bit of a prankster herself, could put things in people's beds- as long as Sabrina didn't catch her. It was a bad thing, though, because the dorms were DISGUSTING, and because if anything happened to anyone's stuff, the girls were immediately blamed.

Tom left in the first week of June, and the girls gave him a small birthday party the night before. Once he was gone, Sabrina was hit with a profound loneliness, almost as bad as when Dare and Jason had left, because now it was just her and Daphne, no one else. No friends.

Soon after that, they were sent to Mr. Mastro, an avid rooftop gardener with an arthritis problem who was looking for cheap help. The funny thing was, her lived only a few streets down from the girl's old house. They had to go to school, of course, and Sabrina and Daphne saw a lot of their old friends. Daphne told them all exactly what had happened to them, but Sabrina kept a little quieter. She watched the girls she'd used to hang out with, and they seemed so different. So... immature. Had she really enjoyed hanging out with people like that? Had they changed, or was it her that had?

They stayed with Mr. Mastro for a while, until there was an unfortunate incident with slugs and the girls' hair. After that, they ran to the most mature of Sabrina's old friends, Nancy.

Sabrina was struck another blow when Nancy, instead of hiding her like she'd asked, called her parents and told them what was going on. When Nancy said that she'd thought it was the best thing to do, Sabrina had scathingly replied that Nancy should stay at the orphanage for a while, THEN see if she still thought it was the best thing to do.

Sabrina went back to the orphanage that time knowing she had no ties anymore to her old home.

Their next punishment was that the adults who lived in the orphanage's rooms would be added to their list of cleaning duties, which was probably the worst mistake Ms. Smirt had ever made. The girls made sleeping a constant terror for her, giving her a slight payback for all the horrors they'd been put through.

They'd been in the orphanage for a year now, and Sabrina decided that she could officially dub it as the WORST year of her life. She'd completely lost hope of being rescued, or of anything good ever happening to her again, or at least until her eighteenth birthday.


	23. The End, or the Beginning

**AN~ I'm extremely sorry this chapter is barely half the length of some of the other ones, but this story is over, so there just wasn't anything more to write. **

**Thanks to Fixated-on-the-trickster-king, MoodyRuby277, Blue-Eyed-Lily =^.^=, Grimmaholic, Lara D :), selkiie, RanbowofSmiles16 :), Prudence199, booksrmyworld4evah, gothicgal000, RockSuperstar, wtermelonandpeanutbutter, TheSecretWeasely5147 =*.*=, Sabrina2B, Anonymous, alexia, 666CeCe666, anonymous (is this the same person or a different one?), mrf18 for reviewing EVERY chapter at once :), Crystal Jackson, and...**

**Wow. I got a surprisingly large number of reviews for the number of reviewers. Thanks to all of you who reviewed regularly!**

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The last several months in the orphanage went by in a blur for Sabrina. All she really remembered was being angry. Always angry.

The Cattiwamans wanted to use them as cheap labor for their new septic system. Sabrina did not agree. They left, and the girls got in trouble because Mr. Cattiwaman had mysteriously ended up with a large cut on his forehead that was shaped an awful lot like a shovel, and he appeared to have amnesia, with no memory of ever adopting anyone.

He spent a lot of time in the hospital, and the girls spent the same amount of time in the basement.

Ms. Shedmeyer refused to let the girls take a shower, because she was terrified of the soap. Her house was filthy, it smelled disgusting and looked even worse, and she didn't even seem to notice. The girls left when Sabrina told her she needed to conquer her fear and threw a bar of soap in her face. It turned out Ms. Shedmeyer was allergic to that brand, which was the inspiration for her fear, as she'd had a traumatic experience as a small girl.

The girls were required to go without bathing for a week as punishment.

Mr. Armstrong used the girls as roofers, because his name was extremely ironic, and he was the weakest man on the planet, with a debilitating fear of heights. The girls used that to their advantage in escaping, telling him they wanted to show him something, then making him lean out the window of the highest point in the house. Then they ran for it.

Ms. Smirt confined them to the roof for the next several days, in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Mr. Treeson was just plain crazy. He talked to invisible little green men. He told the girls to watch out for the smurfs in the closet, excet he didn't call them smurfs. He called them the wee free men. But their description sounded like smurfs, except meaner and scarier. He would spend hours in the kitchen, cooking with garbage. The girls left there very quickly, calling the neighbors and telling them he was threatening them with a knife. The neighbors called a mental institution, and the girls were free to go.

They didn't go back to the orphanage.

Ms. Smirt was not pleased.

They spent a large amount of time cleaning the orphanage kitchen, while the cook actually DID threaten them with knives.

Ms. Smirt had to hire a new cook when the old one somehow slipped, giving herself a concussion and a large cut with the butcher knife she was holding. Sabrina escaped the blame by bullying some of the other kids into vouching for her story that she had been making up a science test.

She was punished anyway, but it wasn't nearly as severe.

Between all these incidents, the girls spent time in various homeless shelters all over New York City, and Sabrina memorized the map of their locations. This was by far the best time for the girls, but that wasn't difficult, and it still wasn't very fun.

There were also some incidents with the bullies of the orphanage, but Sabrina quickly reminded them that, while she wasn't surrounded by eighteen-year-olds, she was still not someone to trifle with, and neither was her sister.

She was punished for fighting. Daphne was not.

All that changed when Sabrina heard the first words she would remember clearly in the future out of the past several months, especially out of Ms. Smirt's mouth:

"We've found you a new home, with someone you're related to. She's your grandmother, and her name is Relda Grimm."


	24. Editing Note

I've recently looked over a lot of my older fics (this one included), and when I was doing that I realized something:

They're not very good.

You can disagree with me if you want, but if you read them when I first wrote them and go back and look at them now you'll probably realize that I'm right (I've found that stuff looks a lot better in my memory than while I'm rereading it, at least on fanfiction).

So I'm going to do something about this! I am going to do some hard core editing of all my stories. I've edited all of the oneshots and most of the shorter stories already, so now we're moving up to the big guns, which are the ones that need the most work to flow better. This is next on the list.

Also, I know some of you are probably wondering this, so I promise you that this will not interfere with me updating any of my in-progress fics. I've been working on the oneshots and shorter things for a good couple of months now without messing up update schedules. (Other reasons that I don't update will probably happen, though.)

BE WARNED:

Chapters will divide and combine and move around and be very different than they were last time this got read. I'll keep a running list of changes here so things don't get too confusing, but if you're not paying attention or you're reading this while I edit, you may get very confused.

Hoping it gets a lot better this time around,

-Curlscat

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**Change Log:**

Chapters 1 and 2 combined, edited.

Chapters 3 and 4 combined, edited, moved to chapter 2.

Chapters 5 and 6 edited, moved to chapter 3.

Chapters 7 and 8 combined, edited, moved to chapter 4.

Chapter 9 edited, moved to chapter 5.

Chapters 10 and 11 combined, edited, moved to chapter 6.

Chapters 12 and 13 combined, edited moved to chapter 7.

Chapters 14 and 15 combined, edited, moved to chapter 8.

Chapter 16 edited, moved to chapter 9.

Chapter 17 and 18 edited, moved to chapter 10.

Chapter 19 edited, moved to chapter 11.

Chapter 20 edited, moved to chapter 12.

Chapter 21 edited, moved to chapter 13.

Chapter 22 edited, moved to chapter 14.

Chapter 23 edited, moved to chapter 15.

Chapter 24 edited, moved to chapter 16.

Chapter 25 moved to chapter 17.

Chapter 26 moved to chapter 18.

Chapter 27 moved to chapter 19.

Chapter 28 moved to chapter 20.

Chapter 29 moved to chapter 21.

Chapter 30 moved to chapter 22.

Chapter 31 moved to chapter 23.

This author's note will be deleted once editing is finished, and the change log will be moved to the opening AN.


End file.
